How is it possible to be a shepherd if you are not first shepherded? Pastoring ourselves leads to great infectious transformation. Training in righteousness is vitally necessary in order to teach other people how to be righteous. The Jesus disease is more easily caught than taught. New creation identity is crucial to Christian living.
Putting on the new man is exactly what the flock needs to see us do and then be equipped to do also. An undivided understanding of our crucified sinful nature illuminates the holy path that we must follow in order to walk in the Spirit.
A steadfast belief in the Word of God and agreement with the truth in the holy scriptures, no matter what we see or feel, begets the freedom that we need to communicate the Gospel to other people. Daily acceptance of the truth of our new identity brings bold unwavering confidence in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Righteousness. Jesus Christ was able to make atonement for the sins of the world through His obedient life. He obeyed the law completely. He walked in oneness with Father. He even expanded the law to include our thought life and yet did not sin. He is righteousness. Because He is Father’s righteousness He can extend His perfect righteousness to us in new creation identity. We are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
Holiness. Jesus’s perfect performance on earth as a man, fully man, is conveyed to us through our yes to His offer of new life. Being holy on our own by employing great willpower and effort is futile and will end in moral failure. But accepting the truth that Jesus Christ has made us holy will produce holiness automatically. We are now through our conversions holy and elect. Simple acceptance of this amazing truth and taking every thought captive that sets itself up against the knowledge of that truth is how we move into a more holy lifestyle. The Word is truth.
Crucified flesh. In Christ Jesus, our flesh, our sinful nature, has been crucified and no longer lives. Our flesh is on the outside trying desperately to convince us that it is still alive. Confidence in our new creations is exactly how we put the old man back into his grave where he belongs. Lust is no longer a part of who we are. It is on the outside of the temple trying to get back in. Holy Spirit cannot dwell in an unclean filthy sinner and that is precisely why He has removed all of our transgressions from us as far as the East is from the West. Sins are no longer our marker but rather a new creation life is our solid identity.
False humility-loosing religion. Refusing to identify ourselves as holy and righteous is prideful. We are no longer sinners but rather we are beloved children of our awesome Creator. Calling ourselves sinners after Jesus Christ has taken away all of our sins is foolish false humility.
True humbleness comes from exercising our God-given new identity with bold confidence. Jesus clearly states that we are the light of the world but hell flings great deception at us to try and steal our identity and dull our new creation illumination.
Fear. Fear is no longer a part of who we are. Father prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. In the true story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego Father didn’t extinguish the flames. He walked in the threat and ignored the destructive power of the flames. Likewise, we should ignore all threats. If we feel afraid then we must ignore it. Fear of failure is a great deception. We shall only grow and become more seasoned with the salt of heaven through failure. Fear cannot control us. Even the fear of death is a blatant lie from the pit of hell. We are never going to die. We will live forever. Therefore, we will NOT fear.
Prayer not complaining. Fretting and worrying about a situation that is seemingly headed in the wrong direction usually leads to complaint-focused ineffective prayers. Prayer is a conversation with our Father that should expect that He will talk to us. We have two ears and one mouth so we should be listening sixty-six percent of the time and talking thirty-three percent of the time.
Sometimes what we call prayer, begging Father to move in a situation, is a misunderstanding of how our new life works. We are to use authority in our prayers. We are to not bother Father with requests for Him to heal someone when He clearly says in His Word for us to do it. Lay hands on the sick and maybe they might get better. No! They must get better! Praising the Father before we see a prayer answered is vital to seeing more manifestations of breakthroughs and deliverances.
Authority over demonic activity. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, other people, but rather against demonic powers that blind and push people around. Jesus Christ has transferred His authority to us. He has given us the authority to crush demonic works all around us. We can bind lying religious spirits that confuse the hearts of men. Some men, like the apostle Paul before conversion, believed that killing people who are Christians is God’s work. This deception is horrible and filled with lies.
If we refuse to embrace our new creation identity then we will be bound by our own religion and left powerless over the lying religions of this broken world. We must see through the fault of a person and into their need for deliverance and command those lying spirits to flee.
Marriage covenant. Because of the truth that we haven’t earned our salvation in any way, nor could we, we must extend the same grace to other people but especially to our wives. It is nearly impossible to extend grace to anyone if you have not extended grace to yourself first.
Whenever I ride in an airplane the stewardess explains that in an emergency oxygen masks fall from a compartment in the ceiling. We must put on our masks first so that we can help others. If we help others first we might become disoriented and lose consciousness because of our mistake.
We must get the pure oxygen of the Gospel flowing through our lives to love in a covenant fashion expecting nothing in return. Jesus said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. If we cannot love our new creations and become exceedingly grateful for our new life but rather focus on our old lives we will not be able to love anyone else.
Freedom. We are not trying to regulate our old broken lives, we are to put on a new life and never look at the old life again. Growing in truth begets great freedom from habitual sins and gives us the power to execute the lifestyle we tried so hard to accomplish from the outside in rather than from the inside out.
Living out of the finished work of Jesus Christ is how we become more free. Psalm 34:19 says many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers him from them all. We are pre-delivered and set at liberty from every bondage. Freedom is our God-given right and inheritance.
Obedience. How then shall we change the way we approach obedience? By steadfastly holding onto agreement with the Word of truth no matter what we see or hear or feel. Our emotions are not to be trusted. Only the truth of the Word of God, Jesus Christ, is to be trusted. The only thing that is sure and certain in this world is the Word of God and who it proclaims us to be.
Forcing ourselves to agree with the Word of God brings great transformation automatically and spills out of our temples into the outer courts and saturates all those who are around us. Let’s walk in great confidence in our new creations and praise Father for many conversions before we see them. Hallelujah !!!