The Real You

Its incredible how good of a job the church has done at wrongly defining the identity of the saved. Now don't get me wrong, I love the church but we are constantly shocked at times by what believers 'believe' about themselves and how they came to certain conclusions about who they are.

Kris Valloton once said, "I have a sense that if you knew who you were, then all the stuff in your life that you struggle with would evaporate. I'm convinced that every single person from a child molester to a murderer, every single crime against mankind is rooted in, You don't know God loves you and you don't know who you are."

We have made the mistake of linking our identity to our behavior instead of linking our Identity to Jesus and then living out of that place.

We were never called to live from the outside in but from the inside out!

Just recently I had someone come to me and they asked me to pray for them to have freedom. As soon as they said it the Lord spoke to me and said 'the truth shall set you free'. The devil was running circles around this person simply because they did not fully know the truth of who they were. I told the person that I would not pray for them for freedom because it's the truth that sets you free. So instead I just spoke the truth of who that person really is and immediately their face started to change from sad to happy to overwhelmingly overjoyed.

He whom the Son sets free is free indeed!!

We are not sinners we are Saints (Eph1:1). We are not not servants, we are Sons (Gal4:5-7). We are not abandoned, we are Accepted (Eph1:6). We no longer have a sin nature, We have Christ's nature (Rom6:6-7, 1John4:17). We are no longer in bondage, we are Free (John8:36, Gal5:1). We are not defeated, we are victorious (1Cor15:57). We are not sick, we are Healed (1Peter2:24). We are not unrighteous, we are Righteous (Rom3:21-22). We are not unjust, we are Justified by Faith (Gal2:16). We are not depressed, we are overwhelmed with Joy (Phil4:4).

Thank You Jesus for the Cross!

Thank You Jesus for Truth!

Thank You Jesus for You!

This is the truth of the Word. This is who we are in the Spirit. This is our identity. The truth of our identity may not match our behavior at the moment but it will as we renew our mind to the reality of who we really are. Amen, Amen and Amen.

The reality of knowing who we are also produces an ability to recognize who we are not and therefore able to guard against the lies of the enemy. The enemy has ground in many christians not because he is powerful and took it, but because we don't know who we really are and have given the ground to him.

Many of us know and can quote John 8:32, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" but we forget about the verse before which says, "If you continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;" IF YOU CONTINUE IN MY WORD.....then you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. The word is a perfect reflection of who we are in the Spirit.

Let's let the word tell us who we are and then live from that place of identity and freedom.

The Glorious Gospel Of Grace....The Too Good To Be True News!!!

"The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellarful of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred-proof grace---of bottle after bottle of pure distillate of scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the gospel--after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps--suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started... Grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness, nor badness, nor the flowers that bloom in the spring of super spirituality could be allowed to enter into the case."
-Robert Capon

Alegria

Today was the first day of class for Harvest School 15. We have almost 300 students here (including staff) who all love the presence so you can imagine what kind of a morning it turned into.

During Rolland's session he said, "The Holy Spirit is just in a better mood then you are". As we started to chew on what had just come out of his mouth we started laughing uncontrollably. When we would finally stop laughing, the thought of what he said would come crashing into our minds and we would begin to laugh uncontrollably again. This happened over and over. We would become lost in laughter and forget about what mood we were in previously because we had become undone with the mood of the Holy Spirit, Joy.

Why do we waste one second not walking in Joy? What good reason do we have to not be Joyful? Do circumstances determine our Joy or the Holy Spirit?

We saw a feature on CNN about 6 months ago about a nun that had just turned 113 years old and would visit old folks homes to do the polka with them. CNN asked her, "what is the secret to your longevity?" She looked at the camera, smiled and replied, "joy!". Imagine how many health problems are directly related to a lack of joy. Joy is serious business!

Romans 14:17 says, "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost". If we are not walking in Joy then we are missing out on 1/3 of the kingdom! If Joy is part of the kingdom then I'm pretty sure its an important thing. Step into this joy by faith. Take hold of it and never go back. No longer will we be ruled by our wallowing and depression, they no longer have a room in our house.

The free gift of eternal life should be more than enough to overwhelm us with joy every morning we awake!