New or not?

Ok, so it’s been a while since I’ve posted and i’ve got quite a bit rolling around in me.  I want to share some thoughts on the redeeming power of our God.  Our Father.

2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if ANYONE is in Christ, he is a NEW CREATION.  The old has passed away, behold, the NEW has come. (emphasis added is mine).

The focus here is that when anyone gets born again, he really is a new creation.  This is supernatural.  As a matter of fact, this is the most supernatural event that could ever happen to you.  You are truly being newly created from the inside out.  One minute you are “you, the sinner”, the next minute you are “you, in Christ”.  And when you are “in Christ”, you are seen as new, clean, righteous, and a son (or daughter) in the Kingdom of God.

We must fully believe that the old has passed away.  The old you dies.  Do not try to raise the old you from the dead!  The enemy will lie to believers that there is still some of our old man still in there.  This leads to doubting that everything God has made available to us and has promised us may not really be for you.  When we allow this lie to enter into our thoughts, we will not behave in a way that God desires us to.  We will not walk and function as a new creation.  You see, a new creation has full access to everything God offers and the enemy wants to distract us from that very thing.  If he can get us to believe that we aren’t worthy, or that we aren’t ready, or that we aren’t mature enough for everything that God is offering then we become ineffective, unfruitful, Christians.  Does this sound familiar for any Christians you know?  Powerless.  Unfruitful.  We cannot believe this lie!

Our conversion is meant to give new direction to our thoughts, emotions, will, and habits.  We become “Christ-like”.  The Bible even goes so far as to say “we have the mind of Christ”.

When we get saved we are FULLY redeemed.  We don’t have to “clock” so many months or years as a Christian to get fully redeemed.  We don’t have to attend any classes.  We just believe and receive what Jesus has done for us.  When we believe this and know that we are new creations in Him, we approach him with boldness and spend time with Him.  He becomes the center of everything we do and all that we are.  This brings maturity.  Being a part of a church family also brings maturity.  You notice I am careful to use the word family when I talk about church.  God has shown us numerous times in His word that he designed the church to function as a family.  Not a kingdom.  We cannot confuse the church with God’s Kingdom. WE are His church.  WE are His body.  Jesus is the head of His body.  It’s a heartbreaking thing when I see people building up their own kingdoms and calling it church.  It looks more like a king and his subjects instead of a family like God designed it to be.  It’s no accident that all of the first churches we see in the new testament were started in homes, where the family is.  Church is about living as a family.

We’ve got to get to a place that we are teaching new believers that they are FULLY redeemed.  In Ezekiel 36, God promised to give us a “new heart and a new spirit”, this conversion changes EVERYTHING.  It changes how we live, how we view the world, how we look at people.  When we are taught and believe that we are fully redeemed, our entire outlook on life is re-centered on God and re-built on His revealed truth.

When our life is centered on God, He becomes the center of everything we do.  We will begin to take our culture back and again make a difference in this world.

Jeff*fightforgrace*

1/12/10