By Pastor Chinedu Emmanuel

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Romans 8:16

1. 1. IGNORANCE WILL WORK AGAINST YOUR CHRISTIAN LIFE.

A major problem most Christians face is ignorance. We are all familiar with the Scripture that says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. If you are ignorant in any area of your life, you will not excel in it. Spiritual ignorance means living in a lack of understanding of the revealed truth that is in Christ Jesus. The following verse speaks about what ignorance does. Matthew 22:29 “Jesus answered them, “You are deluded, because your hearts are not filled with the revelation of the Scriptures or the power of God.” As a Christian, your success or failures, victories or defeats in life depend largely on your ability to understand the realities of the new birth and how it changes your identity and the entire dynamics of your life. Being born again is not just Pentecostal jargon. Jesus said, “You must be born again”. This instruction should not be toyed with. You must, therefore, be deliberate about knowing what it means for you. If not, you will miss out on enjoying the full benefits of salvation. This means you must understand what it means to be born again, what it means to be saved, and how it changes your destiny in a radical way. Accepting Christ gives you life instead of death, light instead of darkness, glory instead of shame, righteousness instead of sin, freedom instead of slavery and makes you victorious instead of being a victim. Other benefits of accepting Christ include transformation from being hopeless to hopeful, deliverance from bondage to freedom, restoration from sickness to health. Christ transforms your life from natural to a spiritual life, a divine nature that is now born of the spirit. Christ has delivered us from the power of satan and his kingdom and brought us into the sovereign kingdom of Christ.

2. NOT CHARACTER MANAGEMENT BUT A NEW CREATURE! A NEW PERSONALITY  WITH A NEW LIFE THAT COMES FROM CHRIST WHO LIVES IN YOU. 

A Christian is described as a branch of the Vine. Jesus is the true Vine and we all are the branches. No branch self manages itself. They simply attach to the Vine and sap flows  from the Vine to them. Life flows from the Vine into them and that life gives them their  fruit and identity. Their ability to stand storms depends on how strongly they attach to that Vine during a storm. Their faith is that attachment point. A branch that is firmly attached and dependent on the Vine will survive the storms of life. As long as the branch is attached, it will never be dry and it will bear fruit naturally with no effort of it’s own. Paul explained it this way. Gal 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Paul said “I was crucified with Christ. I live yet not I but Christ.” Paul never said I am trying to be better. He never said anything about his effort to get better. He said, “I live yet not I but Christ.” He lived by completely relying on all that Jesus did for Him and all that Jesus did through Him. Jesus was the one manifesting through Paul. Paul was just  God’s vessel and Christ’s life within him made him talk, walk, and look like Christ Himself. He was controlled by the life of Christ within Him. Paul said the “love of Christ constraineth us”. Christ was the dominant power working in Paul to will and do God’s good pleasure. Paul was at rest. He had entered the rest of God that Jesus invited us all to.

• • • Matt 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Be humble enough to admit you do not have what it takes to live. Admit that without Him, you can do nothing. Then let Him take your life over and live through you as you watch the wonders of His life, His power, and His love. This is what The Lord means by learn of me for I am meek and lowly. This is how Christ lived His life too.
    • John 5:19 “So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.”
    • John 5: 30 “I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.”
    • John 14:10 “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”
    • Paul followed in Christ’s footsteps. He even said “it is not I but Christ in me that does everything. I live by faith in Him.” You too can say like Paul it is no longer I but Christ. You will have nothing to boast about daily but have everything to give Him glory for daily. He is the new life in you. You are complete in Him. Christ is the only hope of living that glorious life. Let Him manifest His glory through you. Through Him you put the flesh under control and look away from the distractions of the world because at the cross you were separated from the world and the world was separated from you. You can trample upon serpents and scorpions. You live in glory and dominion of the Kingdom of God.

3. YOU RECEIVED THE LIFE OF CHRIST JESUS.

The same Jesus you read about in the Bible lives fully in you, not half of Him but all of Him. 1 John 5:11 “And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.”

• • •  You are joined with His spirit, you are now one spirit with Christ, not two but one.  1 Cor 6:17 “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.”
    •  As a result, you have become a partaker of the divine nature. 2 Peter 1:4 “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

4.  THE HOLY SPIRIT IS HERE TO REVEAL YOUR REAL IDENTITY.

 Your real identity is how God sees you. You need to acknowledge these truths from HIM and take them as yours. Rom 8:15 “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

5. YOUR REALITY IS DETERMINED BY HOW YOU IDENTIFY YOURSELF; HOW YOU SEE YOURSELF.

 Num 13:33 “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” These groups of Christians always see themselves from the natural point of view. They always see reasons why they will not make it. They see giants in everything. They see themselves as grasshoppers!!!! They limit their vision with their natural eyes. They tell you everything the Doctor and the television said but, nothing God said.  They tell what is happening to them in detail but, not one word of what God has done. They live a non-spirit life. They live in the natural realm. The natural life is the realm of fear and defeat. The natural has no ammunition to deal with the flesh and its tendencies. It has nothing to fight off spiritual powers. The natural is a life without Christ. It leads to failures and defeat. People living a natural life tend to watch movies that showcase the devil and what he is doing instead of watching movies about God and the wonders of the cross. Their talking point is always from this world and not from heaven where Christ is seated.  

6. PROPER PERSPECTIVE, THE TRUE PERSPECTIVE,  SEEING AS GOD SEES.

The proper perspective is the one the Scripture gives. Paul said, “we do not evaluate anyone from the human point of view any longer.” We now see Christians in Christ as a new creature with a new life. The old life is gone. Is this how you see yourself every day? 2 Cor 5:16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.”

7. THE DEVIL SETS A DANGEROUS TRAP FOR CHRISTIANS.

The devil wants Christians to see from a natural perspective where the devil is the god of this world. Matt 16:23 “Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” 1 John 4:4 “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.”

8. PERCEPTION AND CONFESSION GO HAND IN HAND.

What you see is what you talk about. What you confess is what you see and that becomes your reality. The way you see yourself is how your life turns out. Perception is very important. Christians need to know this very important fact and intentionally fight back to be on the same page with the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, two cannot work together if they do not agree. What you think about yourself and any situation you are in is what you will talk about and confess as your reality, so it becomes your reality. YOU SHALL HAVE WHAT YOU SAY!!! Prov 18:21 “The tongue can bring death or life;those who love to talk will reap the consequences.” 

• • • WHAT YOU SEE IN YOUR HEART IS HOW YOUR LIFE  WILL TURN OUT. We say it always “as a man thinks so is he.” But we never think it applies to us but it does. EXAMPLE: these animals produced according to what they saw. Gen 30:37 “Then Jacob took some fresh branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled off strips of bark, making white streaks on them. 38 Then he placed these peeled branches in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, for that was where they mated. 39 And when they mated in front of the white-streaked branches, they gave birth to young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted.” Our new birth rendered the old nature dead! God sees that new you, not the old one.
    • Unfortunately, in this realm of the flesh, spiritual truths do not make sense. 1 Corinthians 2: 14 “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” But if you live in the consciousness of your new birth, then you are living in Christ as His offspring in the realm of possibilities and faith. In the realm of the kingdom of God where all things are possible to them that believe God and His word. The domain of dominion through Jesus Christ by faith where He has put all things under your feet. Therefore what soever you disallow is disallowed for you. Reign in victory, for faith, is your victory!

Pastor Chinedu Emmanuel is the Senior Pastor at Fountain of The Living Word Church, New Jersey.