Your identity as a believer
God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. - 1 Corinthians 1:30 New Living Translation (NLT)
I am currently studying the book of Corinthians, this is one of my favourite books in the bible. It talks a lot about the new covenant and our identity in Christ. As a believer, you have experienced a regeneration in your spirit. You didn't do it, God did it! Believing by faith impacted your spirit because life is spiritual before physical. Man is a tripartite being, we are a spirit with a soul(mind) that lives in a body. When you believed, you were justified and your spirit became brand new. After you have believed the next part of your salvation is continuous sanctification. This is no longer a thing of your spirit (that is done and perfected!) but a thing of your mind. The mind is a very powerful part of a person, what you believe shapes the way you think, act and see life. This is why our sanctification is a present continuous process, it never ends until we die or Jesus comes to herald us home.
For you to continually live a life that is pleasing to God, you have to know who you are in Christ. You have to understand what your gifted salvation means and how it can impact the way you think and see your relationship with God. The mind is a very powerful tool; Proverbs 23:7a
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he
I just wanted to remind you of a few things that you are in Christ Jesus, maybe this will encourage you to understand that you are not alone or unequipped to please God. The more you understand that grace is available and is the enablement (not the excuser) the less you struggle with pleasing the man that made you all you are.
• In Christ, you are right with God, when he sees you he sees you in the skin of Jesus. You are righteous! It's unfair for God to expect you to be righteous if he has not made you righteous in Christ. This is why your righteousness is by default after believing, you think and act in a pleasant way to God because righteousness is ingrained in your DNA already. You don't have to fake it, you are who God says you are.
• In Christ, you are holy and pure! Who are you to call yourself unholy when you have been called holy and pure? Again you being holy is natural for your regenerated spirit, you can only be what Christ has told you to be. Be holy for God is Holy and has made you holy in Christ Jesus.
• In Christ, you have been redeemed from sin as nature. You have been set free, you control sin. It doesn’t have power over you anymore! This is why when sin as an act crosses your mind you can tell it to go away because you now control it. It doesn't control you anymore. You can say no to lying, cheating, fornication, adultery, jealousy and the rest because you have the power over it. You are free from slavery to sin!
•In Christ, you got the divine revelation of salvation written in your heart. By faith in Jesus, you are you are saved from God's judgement of sin and consequence (eternal damnation).
Without Jesus, it is impossible to be any of the above-listed things.
Let your daily affirmation be the following;
I am righteous, consecrated, wise and redeemedSay these words daily and watch your life and desire for a relationship with God become better!
Preach this to yourself and believe it. Make it your wallpaper on your devices, stick it around your home or your office. Make it into a frame! Keep on affirming these words, don't ever stop. And all the glory will be onto our God, Amen.
The Lord has laid it in my heart to start "Faithspiration by Bibi". It is a weekly (Thursdays at 7pm) post targeted at every believer that needs to be inspired by the word of God, I definitely need inspiration I don't know about y'all "perfect Christians" out there. This is the first of many posts that will charge up believers including me to be more like Jesus. I look forward to writing more posts, may God help me.
The Lord has laid it in my heart to start "Faithspiration by Bibi". It is a weekly (Thursdays at 7pm) post targeted at every believer that needs to be inspired by the word of God, I definitely need inspiration I don't know about y'all "perfect Christians" out there. This is the first of many posts that will charge up believers including me to be more like Jesus. I look forward to writing more posts, may God help me.
"In this world, we are like Jesus" - 1 John 4:17b
With love,
Bibi.
Yess! I'm an icon of the resurrected Christ!
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