Who Are YOU in Christ?

The external onslaught against Christianity is compounded by the internal turmoil for those Believers who do not know who they really are in Christ In other words... Trying to fight the outside circumstances is super-hard if we are fighting inward circumstances at the same time. Something has to give!!!

But, fighting internal circumstances is a piece of cake, or easy as pie when you, me, we, know who we are, and, when we know what we have in Christ. Knowing these truths take more than a few inconsistent confessions or adhering to a daily faithless ritual. There is an effort involved.

There are too many of us who get weary and give up, letting the devil wreck havoc in our lives and eventually giving up on faith in Christ. Point of information... it is not the devil's fault! God has given us all of the tools that we need. We just don't utilize them as we should.

I never said that it was an easy thing. All of us have been "through", are going "through" or in preparation to go "through".

Many are the afflictions of the righteous; BUT THE LORD DELIVERETH HIM OUT OF THEM ALL. _{Psalms 34:19}

Bad stuff happens, unfortunate stuff happens, and just down-right awful things happen. These are the facts. But, the Word gives us specific instructions on how to access the deliverance that the Lord has purchased for us.

We just don't or won't do it! So, we get beat up and want to blame everyone except the right person.....and, who might that person be... it is the "me" in the mirror.

We desperately want to do the Word and have the Word work in our lives. We hear and see the testimonies of others who boldly proclaim that the Glory goes to God for how He has blessed them... you rejoice, but then begin to wonder why you have not seen His hand in your situation.

You brush these feelings under the rug and plan to increase your religious faithless rituals. You get up even earlier, you pray harder (whatever that means), you plan to fast, you increase your giving. You perform self-deliverance and call everything you can think of "out". You do all that you can think and all that you have ever heard anybody say in an effort to get God to "move".

This is wonderful, but there is one thing left undone..... it is the most common factor and the one that is preached about constantly... Faith.

For without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God, MUST believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. _{Heb 11:6}

Wait... I know you think you know, but, please look at that scripture one more time.... it is not talking about rituals, principles, or activity. All of these have their place, Amen. But, this scripture is about us knowing two things....

Success in the Word of God hinges on these two things... everything else is "gravy". These two things are:

1. Knowing who God is
2. Knowing who God is in you...

Obviously, we must know who God is before we can believe Him or even pray to Him. And, most of us are real confident that we know who God is, but do we really? Do we know the character of God or, do we just know the rumors about God? Do we know the heart of God, or do we accept the stagnant religious representation of God?

Secondarily, we must know who God is in us. Knowing who God is in us constitutes us knowing who we are in God. We are no longer sinners although we may sin. We are no longer strangers to the covenant or orphans or destitute, or rejected or forgotten or slaves to the flesh!

We are the temple, house, dwelling, settlement of the Holy Ghost! We are accepted in the beloved and we are Sons and Daughters...

I know... I know, you've heard it before, but your experience of it is just not a reality. In fact, your experience tells you that you are still a mess because you still do messy things. This is where 2nd Corinthians 5:7 comes into play:

For we walk by faith, not by sight. _{2nd Corinthians 5:7}

The word sight doesn't just mean what you see with your eyeballs... Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible defines the Greek word that means sight as [eidos]. Used here in 2nd Corinthians 5:7 that word means:

1. the external outward appearance, form, figure, shape

2. the form of, kind

Vine's Expository of New Testament Words says this about [edios]:

"2Corithians 5:7, where eidos can scarcely mean the act of beholding, but the visible "appearance" of things which are set in contrast to that which directs faith. The believer is guided, then, not only by what he beholds but by what he knows to be true though it is invisible."

So, the mess that you are still messing in is not to be the judge or the determining factor for our status in God or of how God sees us. The Word of God is the final authority on how He feels about us. One thing for sure is that the fact that we recognize our "mess" as "mess" is a good sign. It means that our mind is conforming to the Word of God!!!. What a great mystery!!!

God is good! He has declared us His sons and his daughters. He has not placed any conditions on this declaration. He doesn't waiver. When we mess up, He doesn't take our relationship card back and undeclared us as His kids. No, He holds to His declaration. It is up to us to agree with His declaration and make it our reality.

That does not mean that we should become comfortable in sin... as Paul said, God forbid!. What it does mean is that we have unlimited opportunities to grow into what He has declared us to be. That growth instills in us a confidence of who we are in Him or/and who He is in us.

God is not fickle-minded. Once He declares a thing it is unalterable! He doesn't get mad and de-friend you. You, we, are His children if, we have received the redemption that Jesus paid the price for. And, we are the only ones who can move away from the relationship.... He does not move and He doesn't change His mind. We do!!!!!

We are the one's who feel saved today and un-saved next week. We are the one's who can't decide if God really loves us or if He loves our rituals... It is us!

Not surprisingly, this is how the enemy attacks us and keeps us from growing in Christ. He sees that we do not know who we are and that we do not know who our Father is and, he simply takes advantage of our ignorance.

The devil takes advantage of our spiritual ignorance. The quality of the Word that is within us is what is tested. I know the scriptures say that with Jesus stripes, I am healed... I can quote it, give you chapter and verse, preach it and proclaim it... But, when the devil comes with sickness and/or disease, my response will reveal how much I really believe what I have said.

We are spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body. We can learn scripture, we can memorize the Bible from cover to cover. But that will only help us in the arena of human debate. It will not help us when all Hell breaks loose. And, believe me, all Hell will break loose.

Why isn't learning the Word enough? Isn't leaning the Word part of renewing your mind? Yes, but, it is only a part of renewing your mind.

Learning scripture is an excellent thing to do but unless the part of me that the Word activates, has the Word alive within, learning it is incomplete. Many thousands of people have learned the Word. They are scholars in their own right, but, many of them do not know God.

The Word does not operate through your head. We do not connect to God through our sense knowledge or through our intellect. Our spirit must come alive with God's Word. This is why we must be born-again. Remember, the natural mind can only take you so far...

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." _{1 Corinthians 2:14}

What we know in our head won't help if we don't know Him in our spirit.

There is no reason to feel condemned when the reality hits us that we need to get to know the Lord more intimately; and, that we need to work on learning who we are in Christ. All of us can improve our personal relationship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.

We are sons and daughters.......

When Jesus went to Calvary, there was no way around it, and no way to get out of it. When Jesus went to Hell, it was the same, no way around it and no way out of it until the prophesied time. When Jesus rose from the dead, there was nothing to prevent it and nothing to prevent the redemption He'd secured for us.

I said this to say that there is no short-cut to becoming grounded in the knowledge of who you are in Christ. There is no formula, there is no 6-step model to follow, and you can't receive it through the laying on of hands. All the CD's that proclaim it, all the music that modulates it, all of the thoughts you have about it... none of these things will replace the effort required to become it.

The way we learn who we are in Christ and, who Christ is in us is through meditating or muttering on the scriptures that tell us who we are, In Him.

Meditating means to speak or mutter. We speak so that we can hear because the Word of God says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. _Heb.11:1 Set time aside to speak the Word of "who you are" to yourself. Make it come alive inside of you.

Take each Word in each scripture and think about it... what does it mean? How does it relate to you? If you really believed it, how would it change your current view of your present circumstances.

And, no matter your previous experience, no matter your previous indoctrination, decide to accept what the scriptures say. Decide to let the Word of God judge you. Decide to let the Word of God transform you into the image of God.

It is not hard, but it takes the time it takes. It is not too much to ask us to exert this effort especially when we consider what Jesus endured for our redemption. We just need to make a decision and develop the discipline to stick to it.