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 that abundant life. 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 either get a blank stare, or their response begins with “Well…”
I have found that most Christians believed that re-birth would change their lives 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, those circumstances would still exist the day after you accepted God’s Gift of Grace. What re-birth does provide, however, is a new way for us to go about changing our lives and our circumstances through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were immediately “justified”, meaning we were made right in God’s eyes. Now we are in Christ, and with this new identity comes this incredible inheritance: our sins are forgiven; we inherit eternal life; we receive the indwelling Holy Spirit who is our guide, our comforter, our teacher, and the one who leads us into all truth. We are now worthy and acceptable in God’s sight, not because of anything we did, but because of what Jesus did for us on the cross ; we are heirs to all the blessings in the heavenly realm, and we are heirs to all the promises in the Bible. Wowzzer! How’s that for hitting the spiritual jackpot?
It tells us in 2 Peter, 1:3 that “the more we grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ, His divine nature will give us everything we need for living a godly life.” We have received all of the blessings listed above because we accepted God’s Gift of Grace. But truth be told, this 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. I believe it is this misunderstanding that causes so many Christians to stumble.
When we lived as unbelievers, we developed a repertoire of responses or reactions to situations that were designed to keep us safe, to help us get ahead, or to fulfill our desires. Unfortunately there is no mental delete button that wipes clean those strongholds in our minds. So unless we call on the Holy Spirit to empower us to make different choices, we tend to default to our old, familiar behaviors. Therefore we have to intentionally make new choices that bring honor and glory to God, not the old choices we naturally made to satisfy ourselves. Galatians 5:17-18 describes the battle that will ensue: “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 each other and your choices are never free from this conflict. But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject (a slave) to your sin nature.” These choices have to be intentional, and they have to be repeated in order to establish a new habit . 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 has been given to us as a gift from God so we can rise above the world around us. After all, He knows we’re only dust; He knows we’re weak. So the Holy Spirit empowers us to do what we proved from Creation until the coming of Christ we could not do for ourselves. We could not overcome the issue of SIN. In fact, 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 through our own effort, so he implemented his plan, that was in place even before the world was created, (Ref. Ephesians 1:4) to send a Redeemer to save us from ourselves. Remember, we cannot come into God’s presence if we are stained with sin. 1Peter 1:16 states: “For He said, “You must be holy (sin-free and set aside for a sacred purpose) because I am holy” Why? Because sin spreads, contaminates, destroys and kills. God has promised all of us who are in Christ that we will spend eternity with Him in Paradise, and Paradise, by its very definition, will be without sin!
Because the Holy Spirit has replaced our sin-nature (our self-centered nature), we can now call on him to give us His 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 move victoriously 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 us. And it is also the answer to a life that is characterized by peace. serenity. freedom and joy!
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May God Bless You Abundantly…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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