85 - Power Over Unrighteousness

We once lived our entire lives before Christ in alignment with who we believed ourselves to be—unholy, unrighteous before God. This belief dictated and influenced everything we thought, said, and did. However, now that we are in Christ, we live in an entirely new reality. We are no longer defined by who we thought we were, but by who He says we are. We are truly holy, righteous, and pure. As we walk in faith, we progressively live out this new identity, moving from one degree of faithfulness to another, based on His truth.

The fleeting pleasures of the flesh and the darkness we once walked in no longer compare to the abundant life we now have in Christ. The momentary foolishness and deceit that once captured us pale in comparison to the spiritual blessings we have been given in the heavenly places. The fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and self-control-are the natural outflow of our new life, filled by His Spirit. This new life is far beyond the superficial reality we once walked in.

As we begin to grasp the bountifulness of what we possess, our desire shifts. We now fully desire to live in the body as He has made us in the Spirit. Because of the beauty of our new nature, we progressively live according to our newness. Our minds are set on our righteousness, holiness, and purity in Christ. We are filled with joy, knowing the richness of the life we have been blessed with—this full, abundant life in Christ. It is truly beyond words and to the praise of God.

By catching a glimpse of who we truly are in Him, our minds are renewed. This encourages us in our new, reborn position with God to cast off everything that hinders our walk. As Hebrews reminds us, we cast off the sin that so easily entangles us and run with perseverance the race marked out for us. We run in joy and excitement for the revelation of all that He has prepared for us in this life and the eternal life to come.

As we come to realize more and more of our newness in Christ, we experience the power of the Holy Spirit. This power gives us victory over unrighteousness because Christ has overcome the world. The allurements of this world—its deceitful lusts and empty promises—offer no benefit to our life in Christ. They only detour us from the blessings and unlimited joy that are ours in Him through the Spirit.

Jesus promised us in John 14:25-26 (AMP):

"I have told you these things while I am still with you. But the Helper Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf, He will teach you all things. And He will help you remember everything that I have told you."

We have the Holy Spirit within us to guide us in living out this new life. He helps us live as the new internal, spiritual beings we now are in Christ. The magnitude of the power available to us as reborn children of God is beyond measure. I wish I could fully express what we now possess in Him—the ability to see ourselves as truly new and to live out that newness in every area of our lives.

Ephesians 1:18-20 (AMP) speaks to this:

"And I pray that the eyes of your heart—the very center and core of your being—may be enlightened, flooded with light by the Holy Spirit, so that you will know and cherish the hope the divine guarantee, the confident expectation to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints God’s people, and so that you will begin to know what the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His active, spiritual power is in us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength, which He produced in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places."

Let us, then, set our minds on what is right about us, according to God's true and faithful words. Let His reality penetrate our hearts and renew us to our very core. We must not go another day without fully realizing who He has made us to be.

We live out a holy life because we are holy. We live out a righteous life because we are righteous. We live out a pure life because we are pure.

Ephesians 4:22-24 (AMP) encourages us to:

"Put off your old self completely discard your former nature, which is being corrupted through deceitful desires, and be continually renewed in the spirit of your mind having a fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude, and put on the new self the regenerated and renewed nature, created in God’s image Godlike in the righteousness and holiness of the truth living in a way that expresses to God your gratitude for your salvation."

Amen.