Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers…We know that Jesus came to give us life, and to give us life to the fullest. But so many Christians I meet indicate that they aren’t experiencing the “abundant life” Jesus talked about. That situation bothered me for a long time, as I searched for the answer to “what was missing?” Then I discovered Neil Anderson’s powerful book, Victory Over the Darkness, and I believe he hit the nail on the head when he talked about the misconception between “justification” and “sanctification”. That misconception has proven to be the case when I ask Christians who are struggling with “life issues” this question: “How has being in-Christ changed your life?” In most cases I get either a blank stare, or their response begins with “Welllll…..”
I have found that most people believed that re-birth would change their life and their circumstances. But the reality is…if you had relationship issues, financial issues, health issues, or job issues the day before you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the day after your salvation experience you still have to contend with those same issues. What re-birth does provide, however, is a new way for us to go about changing our life and our circumstances by changing the choices we make.
At the moment we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, these things happen instantaneously (Justification). 2Corinthians 5:17-18 tells us, “When we become a new creation in Christ, the old is gone (our sin-nature) and the new has come. (the Holy Spirit). Now we are no longer slaves to our sin-nature. The indwelling Holy Spirit gives us an option and the power to make different choices that are pleasing to God. Galatians 5:17-18 tells us what to expect. “The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting and your choices are never free from this conflict. But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to your sin nature.”
Not only do we receive the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide us, but our identity has also changed. Now we are grafted into God’s family and we become a Child of God; our sins are forgiven; we inherit eternal life; we are now worthy and acceptable in God’s eyes; we become the righteousness of Christ – not because of anything we did, but what Christ did for us on the cross. When God looks at us he no longer sees a sinner, but a Saint (one who is holy and set aside for a sacred purpose). And…we are heir to all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm and all the promises in the Bible. Wowzzer! How is that for transformation?
No doubt we are a new creation in-Christ! But this “transformation” is only the first step in a life-long process called “sanctification”, or becoming more Christ-like. And because this new journey is a process, it is imperative that we understand what it means to participate in that process. And this misunderstanding, I believe, is why so many Christians stumble.
When we lived as an unbeliever, we learned a whole pattern of responses or reactions to situations that kept us safe; or helped us “get ahead” in worldly terms; or fulfilled our lustful desires. Unfortunately there is no mental delete button that wipes clean these strongholds in our mind. So unless we call on the Holy Spirit to empower us to make different choices, we tend to default to our old behavior. Therefore, we have to intentionally make different choices; not the old choices we naturally made to satisfy our old self, but new choices that are pleasing to God. (Refer to Galatians 5:17-18 three paragraphs above.) These choices have to be intentional, and they have to be repeated in order to establish a new process. As Apostle Paul states in Romans 12:2: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.”
The indwelling Holy Spirit was given to us as a gift from God so we can rise above the world around us to become the person he created us to be. He knows we’re only dust, and he knows we’re weak. So the Holy Spirit empowers us to do what we proved from Creation to 2000 years ago we could not do for ourselves…and that was overcome the issue of SIN. Romans 5:6 reveals our pathetic state: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” Notice Apostle Paul included himself when he stated “us sinners”. “Utterly helpless” tells me that God knew we could never become sin-free of our own volition, so he implemented his plan to send a Redeemer to do for us what we proved we could not do for ourselves. Remember, we cannot come into His presence if we are stained with sin. 1Peter 1:16 states: “For he himself has said, “You must be holy (consecrated, sin-free) because I am holy”
Because the Holy Spirit has replaced our sin-nature, we can now call on him to give us wisdom, courage, strength, patience, perseverance – whatever it is we need to handle a challenging situation, so the outcome brings honor and glory to God. Ephesians 1:14 tells us: “The Holy Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.”
This is how we victoriously move through the process of Sanctification. We count on the Holy Spirit to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. 1John 4:4 tells us: “He that is in me (the Holy Spirit) is greater than he (satan) that is in this world.” The power of the Holy Spirit in us is THE answer to living the abundant life Jesus promised. And it is also the answer to a life that is characterized by happiness, joy and freedom!
Feel free to respond to this posting, and please “like” and share it with other social media friends.
May God Bless Ya…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
.
Leave a Comment