I am hidden with Christ in God!

Col 3:3     your life is now hidden with Christ in God

Col 3:1-4         Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on thingsabove, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

I am hidden with Christ in God!

The lie comes and says, “You live on the Earth. You have nothing to do with heavenly things. Your flesh is where you live. You live with hunger and that is all there is.”

I am hidden with Jesus Christ, was seated at the right hand of the Father. 

I am hidden therefore valuable

I am hidden and protected

I am hidden and set apart

I am hidden therefore separated

I am hidden because another seeks to take me captive with lies 

I am hidden with Christ

the one who encourages my heart

the one who made all things

the one who heals

the one who came to reveal the Father

I am hidden with Christ

the one who intercedes for me day and night

the one who unites me together with love

the one who restores my soul

the one who wants to be known

I am hidden with Christ

the one who wants to share His wisdom and understanding

the one in whom all the fullness of God is pleased to dwell

the one who is over everything

the one who said to me, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I am hidden with Christ

the one who forgave all my sins

the one who canceled the code that was against us

yes, in Jesus, who disarmed the powers and authorities on the cross

 I am hidden with Christ in God

            in a new life

            in a new family

            in a new place

            in his kingdom

            in a new culture 

Col 3:15a         Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…  

                        I have never seen such things before,

                                    considered such things before

                                                or heard such things.

I am hidden with Christ in God 

I am established, anointed and sealed by God.

2 Cor 1:21-22 “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

God sets me in a firm union with Jesus. I am established in Christ, anointed by God, sealed with signs of His ownership and injected with the Holy Spirit.

I have tried to work out the establishment of this relationship.  I have been trying to do it in my own strength. I have been trying to do what God has already done for me. I have been getting angry and bitter with God because I cannot do it.  I have been lead astray.

I was lead astray by lies.

 “It is God who makes both Paul and David (that’s me) stand firm in Christ.  He has anointed me, “officially, designated me as set apart”

Established:

“Could they but understand how just their own efforts are the cause of their failure, because it is God alone who can establish us in Christ Jesus. They would see that just as in justification they had to cease from their own working, and to accept in faith the promise that God would give them life in Christ, so now, in the matter of their sanctification, their first need is to cease from striving themselves to establish the connection with Christ more firmly, and to allow God to do it. "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ." What they need is the simple faith that the stablishing in Christ, day by day, is God's work--a work that He delights to do, in spite of all our weakness and unfaithfulness, if we will but trust Him for it.”  Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ Ch12 http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/murray/5f00.0562/5f00.0562.c.htm

Anointed:

“The specific practice of anointing by pouring oil on the head was used as a symbolic act for officially, designating and setting apart a person for a certain, public, leadership function in the community. It was a one-time event much like an inauguration or ordination. Things could also be sanctified or dedicated to a special purpose for God by anointing (Exo. 29:36). The three kinds of leaders anointed for their ministries in the Old Testament were: priests, and prophets.

A major difference between Israel and the other nations was that when God had someone anointed or authorized for leadership He also provided the empowering of the Holy Spirit to do the job.” Roger Cotton  http://www.agts.edu/faculty/faculty_publications/articles/cotton_anointing.pdf     

I cannot be separated from the love of God.

Rm 8:35-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

   “For your sake we face death all day long;

   we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Eph 3:16-19 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.”

I want to believe I know God’s love.  I think it is here in good times. I think it is gone when trials arrive.  I think God loves me when I am successful and when I see my failures I think He is far away.

A baby knows the love of its parents.  When held the baby may rest, laugh and sleep.  When upset by hunger, wet diapers and any distance from the parents the baby registers a complaint that love is not near.

As I grow up I begin to see that God’s love is bigger than holding me.  Yet I long to touch God and be touched.  God is strengthening me in my inner man, my spirit, so I can be rooted and grounded in His love.  This foundation reminds me, I cannot be separated from the love of God.  As I grasp the truth that His love does not depend on my behavior. I am a little more secure. As I grasp the truth that His love does not waver based on His pleasure with me. I am a little more secure. As I grasp the truth His love is His love and I don’t have to make Him happy. My security is strengthed.

Did you believe that too?  Did you believe God had to be pleased with you or He cut off His love?  LIES!!! 

Did you believe God had to like you to bring His love to your life?  LIES!!! 

Did you believe God had to appreciate you before His love would be active in you?  LIES!!!

I cannot be separated, you cannot be separated, from the love of God.

Father I want to know, that I know that I know, I cannot be separated from your love.  Strengthen me in my inner man so that I will be rooted and grounded in your love and begin to grasp the dimensions of your love.  I join with Jesus interceding for me, “Strengthen me in my inner man”.

I am free from any charge against me.

Rm 8:31-34 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

I have been told God is angry with me.

I have been accused of every sin. I have committed some and some I have only considered.  I thought that was God accusing ---- NOT!!!

I have been told I’m unrighteous, unacceptable only borderline and rejected by God.  These are lies propagated by the accuser.

He says, “You are scum, slim and more.”  LIES!  They are lies!

I am working out my salvation and the price of Jesus blood was sufficient to set me free.

Dragged back into sin, the accuser rejoices in bringing a mirror to me and demanding I look at myself.  I am accused at the same time Jesus is interceding for me.

Jesus is asking God, ”Give David a bigger understanding of grace. Expand his understanding of my blood.  Give him wisdom, insight, decrement, revelation, conviction, power and understanding of your love.  Let your love be released in him.”

No one has a charge against me.  Yet like the Galatians:

Gal 3:1-2 “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?”

I have listened to the law and those teaching the law.  I have heard the word of grace twisting between my ears so it sounds like the unattainable law.

Rm 8:31-32  “If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger?” (The Message)

I am free from any charge against me. I am justified, forgiven, redeemed and covered in Jesus blood.

I am assured that all things work together for good.

Rm 8:28 "We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called in accordance with his purpose."

You have restored relationships with my children and extended family

You have provided a new home

You have restored a love for and activity in photography

You are causing me to growing in ways I did not know needed growth

You have put me back to work

Impatience tells me you do not work together for my good

Hope holds on and fights with impatience.

My unresolved grief lashes out at you

My broken heart is always avoiding you.

It arrives with its specific demands and keeps distance, untrusting and suspicious.

I need these days to work together for good.  One side of me counts up the good things while another side of me cries out in grief and pain.

Help me, heal me, hold me. 

Do you need power? I do.

I live in a world that is constantly calling for our attention. It cries out, “Look at this.  You need this.”

Jesus is saying the same thing.  “David, look at me.  You need me.  David, you really need me.”

When I look at Jesus I am encountering light. When I listen, read and think about Jesus I am being charged with light.  Power is being planted in us. When I listen to the word of God and obey... I am being transformed by light.

My garden is transformed from dirt and composed manure to a tapestry of greens by the seed I plant, the water and the sun.

The water constantly washes over the dirt making all its nutrients available to the plants. It washes over the decaying compost and picks up minerals and parts of the manure. It may carry it deep into the dirt or simply moisten the soil, so that the next watering will move it again.

The Bible says I am watered by hearing the word. Others are influenced by me as I speak the word and obey it. You know someone who waters by their action. They gently cover the plant and the soil with water.  Someone with a hose on full power, who wants to move dirt off of the sidewalk or driveway is not watering.  He might water a nearby area. But the area to which the hose is directed is intended to be cleaned, not watered.

Water may come harsh or gentle. It blesses when it come regularly.  It blesses by its gentleness. It has ability to wash every leaf of a plant and not damage or frighten.  It washes over leaves and compost leaving the plant hungry at its roots. There the plant will embrace, absorb and transform the water and everything the plant lives in, into its life.

Light must come to my garden or nothing and no one grows to its potential.  Light embraces the plant with warmth, it energizes the process of photosynthesis and growth. Light causes the plant to reach for the source of the light.
 
The light of God’s mission and character has one purpose: to transform.  The warmth of the son transforms a seed into a seedling. The light which energizes photosynthesis powers transformation. As the plant reaches higher it is changed from a weak seeding, which looks like so many other seedlings, into the fruitful life God designed.

I am free forever from condemnation!

Rm 8:1-2  Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,  because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

Rm 8:5b but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

Rm 8:10 But if Christ lives in you, … , the spirit is alive because of [the] righteousness [that He imputes to you]. (Amp)

I do not remember being told how to set my mind on the things of the spirit or hearing anyone talk about the basics in milk.

The focus has been on the imperative changes I must make rather than what God has already done. Therefore I always felt under judgment.

Fathers and mothers can be especially good at condemnation, guilt and shame.

Paul says, “therefore there is NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.

I need the milk of the Word of God to acquire these words, this perspective and this renewing of the mind.

Fear of abandonment and rejection have driven my life. They are driving force behind my desire to please people, gain their trust and respect. They are the reason my anger is triggered when I am dis-respected.

I must grasp in my inner most being that God’s words are true.  That He is not fickle and waiting to see if I have been naughty or nice.  There simply is “NOW no condemnation.”

I must grasp that friendship with God is more valuable than friendship with friends.  My fear of their words, abandonment and rejection must stop pulling my life from one side of the road to the other.

I must grasp that knowing the King is the basis of confidence when any accuser is speaking. The King will say, “this one is my child.  He has fumbled his assignment and learned from it.  There is NOW no condemnation”.

I must grasp again on what the King has said. “I am the sheep of His pasture.”  I am under His care. He is my protector. He is my provider.  And I am part of His wealth. He will not part with me ever. I am part of His inheritance. The Father is also guarding me.

Still Revelation tells us we will be accused.  Yet, “there is NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Did I hear that?  Did I hear it?  I am “in Christ Jesus”.  I am in the one and only son of God who the Father loves.  I am in Him.

The Father has finished pouring out condemnation and judgment on Jesus.  He finished that at the cross.  It was finished completely.

Therefore there is now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I must still get it.

Maybe that is why Paul prayed, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Eph 3:16-17

In the struggle

Jesus, there is a struggle in me.  Light is taking its place and darkness is calling, “come back to me”.

Light is simply saying, “darkness is not a part of you.”  While darkness cries, “come back. Come back into my shadows”.

I say:

I am a child of God

I am justified

I am a chosen friend of Jesus Christ

I am hidden with Christ in God

I am united with God and His light is in me

I am part of the body of Christ

I am a saint

I have been adopted as God’s child

I have access to God through the Holy Spirit

and I can cry out for more light in me

I am redeemed and forgiven

I am complete

Not always mature

But I am complete.

Father I need help. I need help so that your light sticks to me. I need help eating it. I need help finding joy. I need help finding your light in side of me. I need help.  Release the unreleased gifts and blessings from one hundred generations of those who believed.

I am complete in Christ.

Col 2:10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: (KJV)

and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. (NIV)

10 And it is in union with him that you have been made full - he is the head of every rule and authority.(CJB)

“The greatest tension in the New Testament is between the indicative (what God has already done and what is already true about us), and the imperative (what remains to be done as we respond to God by faith and obedience in the power of the Holy Spirit).  You have to know and believe positional truth to successfully progress in your sanctification or you are going to try doing for yourself what God has already done for you.

The balance between the indicative and the imperative is about equal in Scripture, but I have not observed that in our churches. Most preaching I have heard focuses on the imperatives.” Neil T. Anderson ,Victory over the Darkness p 84.

No one on the imperative side would say, your are made full. You are complete. The entire focus of the imperative is about the great distance which remains between now and some future date.

I have been made complete.

I have been made full.

I have been given fullness in Christ.

How does this work?  It seems all I see is incompleteness and standards for perfection I cannot fulfill.

To be complete – is to finish, full, acceptable, reformed.

I have been rushing in ………..

The opposite of complete is

Broken

Worthless

Without potential

Sinner

Judgment

Complete and full of his fullness.

Filled with God

One in Spirit with God

Friend

Forgiven

A child is complete when it is born.

It is a child, not fully grown, but complete.

It is not wise yet complete.

It is not mature yet complete.

It does not function as young child yet it is complete. 

It does not know language yet it is complete

It does not know the culture of the family or land

It is a child, complete.

And so I am a child of God, complete.

PS:  There is a tension here.  God says I am blessed and have been made complete.  Yet I only know how to live by my old life. This new whole, complete and full life has no footing in my history.  Everything I do in this new life is a total surprise to me.  It has more surprises than met expectations.

Jesus let every word of every prayer and intercession you prayed for me be released.  Every unfulfilled gift, provision and creativity, every blessing, property and invention be released to me and my house.

I have access to God thru the Holy Spirit

Eph 2:17-18   He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

In one spirit, in the Holy Spirit the seal of my salvation

The source of conviction

The one who helps me pray

The one who groans out things which have no words

The one who teaches me

The one who leads me

The one who gives me gifts from the Father

The one who is showing me Jesus

The one who is moving Jesus in me, through me and around me

The one who brings hope

This one Spirit gives me access to the Father

The one who spent enormous amounts of creativity, contemplation, planning and energy, to create the planets, stars and earth for man.

The one who walked with Adam in the garden.

I have access to the Father.

Jesus said, “Ask.”

Paul said, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Heb 4:16

I have access to the Father and I can come in my time of need.  I can come to find mercy and grace. I can come to find blessing and encouragement.

I have access to the Father. It does not depend on how clean I am. It does not depend on how secure I am. I does not depend on how perfect, righteous or law abiding I am.

I have access to the Father, today, just as I am.

I have been adopted as God’s child.

Eph 1:4-6  In the Messiah he chose us in love before the creation of the universe to be holy and without defect in his presence. He determined in advance that through the Messiah we would be his sons-in keeping with his good pleasure so that we would bring him praise commensurate with the glory of the grace he gave us through the beloved one.

I started to tell God, “you chose poorly”.

No son, I chose wisely and I chose you in love. For in you I have planted myself. I am not new to the struggles between flesh and spirit. I am not new to the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life. I chose you to be my witness. I chose you to communicate my life and love in a unique way. I chose you to give a perspective of grace unique to your generation.

I chose you to be prophet, teacher, apostle, saint, son and more that you can now bear.

Keep working, keep seeking, keep walking. The journey is not long before its value becomes visible.

I chose wisely my son. I chose you. I gave you gifts which will and have given me glory.

I am separating you from you. You are flesh and you are spirit. You are new and you have history. You are blessed and you walk with the results of sin on your back. You are born of my kingdom and you live in the world. You are a man and a saint and these two will war with each other every day.

I am a saint

Eph 1:1 To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.

Definition - Saint: the collective body of those who are righteous in God's sight.

I am a saint

Yes, I am righteous and being made holy

When I walk in the flesh I am still a saint

I will fall and be accused

I am forgiven

I have wallowed in guilt and shame. Yet I am a saint.

I have accepted the lie that sainthood must be attained.

It is a lie. For God has already made me a saint in Christ.  That work is already done.

God made me a saint. He calls me to be faithful.

Father, I belong to you. I am tired and ready to rest. I cannot sweat out the enemy of my soul, nor vanquish his strongholds and lies. Yet I will write them down.

Father, remove his strongholds. Remove his lies.

Around me the world says I am not holy. I am not a saint. It says I am slime, condemned and judged. It says again and again, look in the mirror of holiness and see yourself.

Yet I must choose again and again to look in the mirror and see Jesus’ love, Jesus’ blood, Jesus’ unfinished prayers for me, Jesus words and promises.

Jesus calls me holy. Jesus calls me a saint for the simple reason I have surrendered to Him.

I live daily with the fear I will be disqualified.  It comes true again and again. Disqualified for this job, I can’t get the interview. Disqualified for that job, the interview is all I got. Again I am disqualified for this relationship, friendship and marriage.  While I might be disqualified as a husband and father yet I am a father.  This is a matter of DNA.

While the world will tell me again and again I am disqualified and an unqualified representative of Jesus. I am a saint; it is a matter of His Blood.

I was bought with a price

1 Cor 6:18-20 “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

I was bought with a price.

The price was the blood of Jesus. Yet while I walked in the flesh, I continued to live in the flesh.  I yielded to every temptation. I was choked on every accusation.  Everyone was true.

It was not enough for me to know the pages of scripture.

I need to know, I belong to God. I belong to God.  Others around me Belong to God.

I have met a few people whose lives impressed me that they belonged to God. A few who I could recognize were walking in the spirit.

However, I fumbled around in the dark.  Deceived by satan’s lies, believing that he still owned me.  That my flesh owned me and I could not change that status.

I was trying to do for myself what God had already done for me.

He purchased me. He bought me. I belong to God.

Repeating the truth:

I am a child of God.

I am Jesus’ chosen friend.

I am holy and acceptable by God (justified).

I am united to the Lord and am one in spirit with Him.

I have been bought with a price, I belong to God.

Yes, repeating these truths daily is changing the way I think.  When I want to yield to the flesh, I sometimes begin repeating:  I am a child of God. I am Jesus chosen friend. I am justified. I am united to the Lord and am one spirit with Him. I have been bought with a price.

This is beginning to change the way I see me.

I am united with Christ in one spirit

1 Cor 6:17  “whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.”

But wait the context of this verse is:

1 Cor 6:15-17 “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.”

The picture is unity, being one. The contrast is being united with the Lord or being united with a prostitute.

But my question is, “How does with work? What do I do to be united with the Lord?”  I want to be united, but how.  What do I do to be united with the Lord today? What do I do tomorrow?  How to do I stay in harmony?

I first heard Jesus, as the Holy Spirit move in me and convict me that God was there.  I don’t remember being convicted of sin that first time. I remember being convicted that God was there with overwhelming love.  I was eight.

I have been united with the Lord in worship.  How do I get there again and again?

Is this different when Jesus is my friend?  Is the foundation deeper too?

It seems so far away yet

            My life is hidden with Christ in God  (Col 3:3)

            My life is hidden with Christ in God

            My life is hidden with Christ in God

I have been told my sin makes me and keeps me unworthy of God.  I have been told my sin proves that I am a child of the flesh, a child of the world and a child of satan.

            My life is hidden with Christ in God

I have heard that I am wretched and God is far away.  I have heard that God does not listen to the prayers of sinners.  That He has turned His back on the world.  I have heard that God has turned His back on me.

            My life is hidden with Christ in God

and all my sin is covered with Jesus blood

            My life is hidden with Christ in God

and I can not be closer, I am in God

            My life is hidden with Christ in God

and God not only listens to my prayers, He invites me to come to Him with every need.

            My life is hidden with Christ in God

and He has turned His back on my sin, taking it as far away from me as the east is from the west

            My life is hidden with Christ in God

God has turned His face to me

Asked me to come boldly before Him

Promised never to leave, abandon or forsake me

God has promised to teach me and lead me into all wisdom

            My life is hidden with Christ in God

Help me get this. I want to understand when my life is being run by the flesh and when it is being run by the spirit.

I am united with the Lord in one spirit.  Help me get this.

I have been justified.

Rm 5: 1 “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

….

 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

I have been justified with God. All accounts are settled.  All my sin is cancelled.  Not just all my past sin but all my future sin.  My entire life is justified.  Jesus performed the negotiation process for me before I was born.  When I was twelve I accepted the price he paid for my life.

Yet most of my life, the heavy weight of others expectations, my negative outlook and accusations made me feel like I was not justified.  But I was justified and I am justified.

I did not hold up these expectations and accusations and measure them against the truth we just read.  The result is simple. God did not condemn me because I had been vindicated. Yet I yielded self accusation and self hatred under the weight of shame.

I was guilty of many things but I was not able to hold up my pardon.  Instead I accepted the weight of charges.  Charges already paid for.  And I tried to change my life, repay the debt and satisfy the disappointment of God.

My mind is still spinning because I have not held on to the truth but accepted the lie.

“You have to know and believe positional truth to successfully progress in your sanctification or you are going to try doing for yourself what God has already done for you.” Neil T. Anderson, Victory over the Darkness, Regal Books, 2000, P 84.

This was me. This is me.

Positional truth: I am justified.

  I am reconciled with God.

  All accounts for my sin, rebellion, intentional choices and foolishness are settled. 

They are settled for yesterday.

They are settled for today.

They are settled for tomorrow.

They are settled.

How does this work.  Is it like the gift of a car, all gas, repairs and insurance paid into the future? 

It is better.  But how do I understand it?

I have peace with God through Jesus Christ. 

God is not angry with me.

He is not trying to over through my life by war or violence.

He has established a treaty that resolves all offenses

and He has promised to provide for me and bless me

as I follow Him.

I am still trying to grasp it.  I am still trying to hold on to it.  Knowing and believing is harder than hearing. 

Even as I write I am hearing it again.

  I am justified.

I can say I know

  I am justified

I have some measure of confidence now

  that I am justified

But, what about tomorrow?

I will need to repeat these words

  I am justified

And reconsider them again and again so that my confidence will grow.

Why write?

So why am I writing this blog?

When I first encounter the “Who I am in Christ” list on this bookmark, I felt challenged. I was challenged by my friend Keith to read it out loud twice every day.  But I felt more deeply challenged. 

I read the “I am accepted” list twice a day.  Then every day I had a devotion, I used the next item on the card as my focus for the day.  I looked up the whole verse and began writing in my journal.  The “I am” section of this blog is coming form those pages of my life.

What I am discovering is, I am a church going David yet I have arguments and pretenses in my life. Argument and pretenses have set themselves up against me truly knowing God.  These arguments and pretenses have laid hold of my mind and heart. They keep me from knowing God. I have accepted some of these lies as truth.  They argue against God and His truth in me.

“God doesn’t have anytime for me. He is not interested in the real me” is just one of the lies I have accepted and embraced.  I believed God blessed others and would never bless me.  At best it seemed like I was a pawn in God’s little chess match on earth.

I believed this lie because of my own discouragement, pain and loss.

Yet Jesus says:

            I will never leave you or forsake you

            Whenever two or three of you gather together in my name I am with you

            The Father is sending you the comforter who will lead you and teach you in all wisdom

            Jesus is interceding for me daily at God’s throne

            Jesus called his disciples friends and I am his friend

            God calls me His child and His adopted son

            Jesus prays for me daily

            He has forgiven and forgives me

            He wants time with me

            Yes, He wants time with me

            Why does he want time with me

            To renew my mind

            To bless my life and expand it in every direction

            To teach me how to walk in the spiritual blessing I have already been given

            To teach me how to walk in the spirit with faith and wisdom

When I accepted the lies that said, “God didn’t car about me.” They fit my emotions. They seemed to fit the situation and I traded the real value of my allegiance for that “truth” which was a lie. 

I gave away my mind and heart for a lie, for counterfeit truth.

To identify counterfeit money tellers count, recount and handle lots of real money. The counterfeit bills are first recognized by touch, feel, impression, marking pen because there is something a little bit wrong with them.

Shifting from the worlds thinking, into God’s kingdom thinking requires lots of truth handling to expose the lies. Jesus said I should first look at the log in my own eye before looking at others.

My direction is to keep handling more truth until I know it. Then keep handling it till it renews my mind.  Then I will keep handling it, lifting up truth where it has been stolen.

There might be jobs in counterfeit detection but I am seeking life, peace and joy that are in the truth.

I am Christ’s Friend

“I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his masters business.  Instead I call you friends for everything that I have learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15 (NIV)

For myself, I always thought I could not be a friend of Jesus because

  I was not from the right side of the tracks

  I did not wear the right clothes

  I did not know the right words

  I did not have the right friends

No, I couldn’t be a friend of Jesus because

  I am accused and guilty

  Guilty of lying, cheating, being selfish, hurting others, being cold, full of lust, getting high, drinking and cheating, losing money, stealing money and more

But Jesus says to me, “no longer are you disqualified

  I call you a friend and not a servant because I have introduced you to the family business. It is fully laid out before you. I have talked to you and demonstrated everything my father has taught me.”

  “The family business is about reconciling men to God.  My Father has the resources, power and authority in this business.  He has been committed to it for 6,000 years.”

  I heal to reconcile men to God

  I teach to reconcile men to God

  I enter homes to reconcile men to God

  I get into conversations, tell stories and demonstrate my Father’s love to reconcile men to God.”

“Its important everyone makes this connection. The family business is about reconciling men to God.”

“You are my friends. I have demonstrated that anyone I choose is accepted.

            Anyone I chose has an invitation

            Anyone I chose is invited to live out the family business

            The harvest is plentiful”

I, David have believed men’s lies. The lies that disqualified me. I have an invitation to come into the family business as a friend.  Old and broken, I have an invitation to step in with the disciples and grow into a man who reconciles men to God.

I am a child of God.

John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- (NIV)

Even though I have grown up in the church and I am 56 years old, this is hard to believe in my heart.  There is a war within me that wants things to remain the same.   The darkness within me does not want to be displaced by light.

So I hear all these accusations:  Do you really look like a child of God? Do you think you act like a child of God?  Come on now, really, does a child of God have an imagination like yours? 

Whatever the accusations by believing in his name, I have become a child of God.

When the accusations fly and accurately describe my failures

      I am a child of God

When I do not cooperate with the Holy Spirit

      I am a child of God

When I am full of pride, anger and sharp words

      I am a child of God

When I believe Satan’s image of myself,

unworthy and unwelcome in the presence of God

      I am a child of God

He chose me

He appointed me

He purchased me

      I am a child of God

When I don’t see His kingdom victorious around me

      I am a child of God

“to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”

Faith is the only requirement.

There is no requirement for scrubbing yourself clean or requirement to live up to a certain standard.

I am a child of God

I am a son of God

As my image of Him changes

from a God who finds joy in punishment

      to a God who has already forgiven

from a God who accuses me of my sin

      to one who want to remind me of the good work is doing in me

from a God who is impatient

      to one who waits for me daily

He waits, seeing the tempter and accuser pull the same speech and whispers out for every new believer.  He waits while those words play over and over.

He wants me to know Him

And know myself through His eyes

To be his ambassador

And use the gifts he has given me

I am a child of God and He is watching me grow.

I am accepted

As I was reading Victory over the Darkness by Neil T. Anderson I encountered a paragraph that took me by surprise. P 84

“The greatest tension in the New Testament is between the indicative (what God has already done and what is already true about us), and the imperative (what remains to be done as we respond to God by faith and obedience in the power of the Holy Spirit).  You have to know and believe positional truth to successfully progress in your sanctification or you are going to try doing for yourself what God has already done for you.

The balance between the indicative and the imperative is about equal in Scripture, but I have not observed that in our churches. Most preaching I have heard focuses on the imperatives.”

I was right there. That was a description of my culture, my motives and my conversations.  I was centered on change, change that comes from learning, discovery, knowledge and understanding.  I was not centered on change that comes from the power of the Holy Spirit. 

WOW, I was really trying to do for myself what God has already done for me.  While this hit me like a lightning, bolt I have not yet seen how far it reaches.

I was trying shape my life into Christ likeness by myself.  It is impossible.  Loving people with my own strength was frustrating.  Trying to conquer the power of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life was a journey of self-discipline which had to be maintained.  I was tired and I didn’t even know how tired I was.

God had already done it. I was already a child of God, no daily or hourly performance test required.  I was already justified, forgiven and redeemed.  I was already in a place where I could not be condemned and much more. But I did not know it.  I had heard it, but I did not know it. It was not in balance in my life like red blood cells and white ones.  I needed the things God had already done in my life flowing through my life, thoughts and conversation in order to grow.  The things which God has already done for me were missing. I needed them as a foundation.

So I committed to quote this first list of things God has done for me, twice a day.  I also committed to look at each one and try to get a deep grip on it.

I AM ACCEPTED

John 1:12 I am a child of God.

John 15:15 I am Jesus’ chosen friend.

Rom. 5:1 I am holy and acceptable by God (justified).

1 Cor. 3:16 I am united to the Lord and am one in spirit with Him.

1 Cor. 6:19,20 I have been bought with a price, I belong to God.

1 Cor. 12:27 I am a part of Christ’s Body, part of His family.

Eph. 1:1 I am a saint, a holy one.

Eph. 1:5 I have been adopted as God’s child.

Col. 2:10 I am complete in Christ.

Col. 1:14 I have been bought back (redeemed) and forgiven of all my sins.

Reaching for the light

Everyday there is a cycle of light and darkness. Each morning the sun rises and brings new light to the earth.

The leaves, once dark and ominous, are now bright and green.  The stumps and trunks of trees once filled the night as fearful strangers. Now at mid-morning they are friends along the trail.

Without the sun there is no light and no color. When the sun returns, the water, the earth, moss and trees all reflect who they are. Colors of blues and turquoise shine up at me. Colors of green around the trail cry out to me. Overhead and all around the trees reach higher for the sun’s light.

All their structure: the roots, trunk, limbs and leaves reach for one goal. Get me closer to the sun.  Below them death, decay and excrement are carried by the rain to their root systems.  Every fiber of which is ready to absorb, transform and build the next leaf, limb or needle.  Roots, ready to build the next inch of limb or foot of trunk reaching for the sun.

I am like this. I am reaching for the Son.  In His light all the beauty He created in me is reflected in color, love and the creativity He has gifted to me.  And within me there is decay and excrement and as His word washes over me, it carries bits of my weakness away.

Then like the tree, the same water, minerals and enzymes fertilize my growth.  My roots grow deeper to extract every drop of moisture mixed with sin, manure, grief, sorrow and His Word.  Each new glimmer of understanding is carried by the Spirit to transform my life, strengthen my roots and expand my reach for the Son.

Refreshing rain covers all my leaves but the water that transforms dung into fertilizer is far more valuable on the ground.  When the Word is as rain, I am refreshed by its touch.  When it soaks into the foundation of my life I feed for days, weeks and months on its transforming power.