Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold outthe word of life.  Philippians 2:14-16

I recently visited with a young woman who grew up in church, loves the Lord, hosts a small group Bible study in her home, but continues to struggle with overwhelming feelings of fear and condemnation. She lamented that the churches in her area were “powerless to help people like her.”  In many ways she had no more freedom in her life than the unsaved men and women of her community.

If we are honest, many believers today are saved but remain in bondage to sin, addictions, shame, fear, anger, depression, and a host of other hindrances to their walk. The truth is that other than church attendance, a very large number of believers feel and act just like the people they work with or go to school with who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them. Divorce rates in the church rival divorce rates in the culture at large. Christian teens seem to have little power over the cultural pressures to drink, experiment with drugs, or to be sexually active. A significant number of believers live on antidepressants, tolerate marriages dominated by anger and rage, live with bitterness toward people in their past, and are crippled by an overpowering sense of unworthiness and rejection.

I’m not scolding these believers for not being “the Christians they should be,” because I have struggled with many of those issues as well. These believers are desperately looking for freedom, but in many cases have not been shown by their churches how to access the freedom and healing that Jesus promises.

A gospel that only gets us to a place of forgiveness but does not radically free us and change us so that we stand out in contrast to our culture is not the gospel that Jesus preached. Paul pointed to this truth in the text from Philippians quoted above.   Stars stand out in stark contrast to the darkness like the sun’s brilliant corona as it shines around a total eclipse. Jesus himself declared that his followers were to be the light of the world. Those who wear the name of Christ should stand out in the crowd by their sheer “differentness” or contrast to the unredeemed.

Jesus spoke of being “born again” not as figurative language for trying harder or simply starting over with a clean sheet, but as a reality where something real and essential has been altered in everyone who comes to him. Scripture tells us that before Jesus came into our lives we were dead in our trespasses and sins and living under the dominion of darkness. We were in bondage to sin whether we knew it or not.  Satan literally owned us. But in Christ, all things become new. Jesus declared that he came to heal broken hearts and set captives free.  Those promises are for this world not just the world to come. After all, the same power that raised Jesus from the grave operates within us.

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul declared, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”  These individuals had come to Jesus with a lifestyle of sin that was essentially their identity. But, as new crea4tions, they were no longer what they had been.  This was more than forgiveness, it was transformation.  And it was transformation that had not taken decades of professional counseling, drug therapies, or detox clinics. It was the truth, the love of Christ and his body, and the power of the Holy Spirit that made such dramatic transformation possible.  It is still possible today and I have seen it over and over.

The Spirit of God who has constant access to the mind of God lives within us and is willing to download the knowledge and creativity of heaven to those who ask for it.  Because we have “the mind of Christ,” we should be the smartest, most creative, most resourceful, and most optimistic people on the planet in very noticeable ways.

When the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, an incredible potential for radical change is released. The door to our prison cell is unlocked and opened wide.  The question is whether we will walk through that door into a radically new life or voluntarily stay in our familiar environment.  Many Christians stay because they are unaware of the open door because it is only perceived by faith.  They are also unaware of the destiny and power Christ offers them to set them free and transform their lives.

Satan’s first goal is to keep us from coming to Christ. If that fails, his second goal is to make us ineffective in Christ. One of the enemy’s most effective strategies is to convince a believer that he is the same person he always was and will always be, even after coming to Christ. We rarely rise above the view that we have of ourselves.  Satan peddles the lie that the only difference between the saved and unsaved person is that the saved person has his or her sins forgiven. Otherwise, we are still as powerless and broken as the unsaved around us.

I have heard that statement made in churches as an expression of humility and to push back against any tendency toward self-righteousness. The intent is honorable but the premise is false.  If he can’t keep us from accepting Jesus, the next best thing is to convince us that we will only experience the power, healing, authority, and blessings of heaven after our funeral.  Until then, we will simply struggle and do the best we can while our life plays out like a sad country song.  That is not what Jesus had in mind on the cross.  That is not the abundant life. That is not being more than a conqueror.

After coming to Christ, the essential difference between those with the Spirit of Christ living in them and those without the Spirit should soon become apparent, not as a reflection of our efforts but as a reflection of the power of God working in us. The fact that so many believers blend in perfectly with the world around them reveals that something is amiss. Speaking of Jesus, John tells us, “In him was life and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4).  There was a measure and quality of life in Jesus that was unmistakable.  It stood out and drew men to him.  With Christ in us, we should exude the same life.  That life comes through the power that heals and sets men free (Isa.61:1-4) and the power that transforms us into the image of Christ.  A forgiving but powerless gospel will not take us there.

Paul gave a stern warning to the church at Galatia regarding the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He declared, “I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Gal.1:6-8). Paul was concerned about a gospel that preached salvation by works, but an incomplete gospel also borders on being another gospel.To teach forgiveness only, without the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, leaves believers vulnerable to the oppression and affliction of the enemy.

Whenever Jesus and his followers preached the gospel, they immediately healed the sick, cast out demons, cleansed lepers, and raised the dead. That power was not just a demonstration that they were speaking for God, but it was also necessary for those accepting Christ to be released to meet their full potential in Him. Much of the church is reclaiming the power of the Holy Spirit but that realization has not yet made it into the majority of churches or believers in America.  My hope is that a time will soon come in which no one will have to say that the churches in his or her area seem powerless to help, “for the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20). I also hope that you will be a clear voice in the Kingdom of God for all that Jesus purchased on the cross for all those who follow him.

Having an internal frame of reference means that in any given situation we do not take our truth from external circumstances. The world always gives us negative information. We ask the Father for his perspective. We never ask, “Why?” It is the wrong question. It is an invalid question that makes us invalid. It is a victim question, and the Father never makes us victims. He trains us to fight, to overcome, and to be more than conquerors in Christ. If the Father has never been overwhelmed, and Jesus is undefeated, then the Holy Spirit can only lead us in triumph (Graham Cooke, Manifesting Your Spirit, p. 12, Brilliant Book House).

That’s a good word from Mr. Cooke. Think about it. If we are in Christ and he is in us, then we never need to be in any position other than the one Jesus is in in any situation. Instead, we often view ourselves as separated from Christ and all alone in our dilemmas. We feel as if he has withdrawn and left us to fend for ourselves. We then feel helpless and slip into Satan’s trap of feeling like victims. As soon as we take on the identity of a victim, we deny every scripture that declares God’s care for us and his promise that he will never leave us or forsake us.

As Cooke stated above, the question is not “Why?” but rather, “What do you want me to discover in this circumstance?” David had plenty of opportunity to ask “Why?” when he spent s years in the wilderness running from Saul. After all, he had been anointed by Samuel to be king over Israel and God had already announced that he was removing Saul’s throne, so why was Saul still king and trying desperately to take David’s life? It would have been easy for David to believe that God had gone back on his promises or that Samuel had given a prophetic word in error. There are, in fact, moments in scripture where David did feel those things but he quickly found his way back to faith and the promises of God – back to an internal perspective.

We often feel abandoned and victimized because God does not give us quick or clear answers to our prayers or because he answered them in ways that we did not outline for him. Certainly, David’s prayers immediately after his anointing by Samuel were not for God to place his life in peril and to allow him to live in caves for seven years. And yet, God had great purposes in the delay. Saul was given his kingship almost overnight. Solomon said that the earth shutters when a slave becomes king. I believe what he meant by that is that when someone suddenly becomes king who has not been trained in leadership, who has not been trained to wear power well, or whose heart has not been trained to follow God’s leading, then trouble is in the cards for everyone.

Saul was quickly made king because he looked presidential. He had the appearance of a leader but not the character. As the pressures of the office mounted he became insanely insecure. He operated out of fear rather than faith and was often disobedient to clear directions from the Lord.

David, however, learned to depend totally on God in his wilderness years. He learned to lead men by sacrifice and love rather than by threats. He discovered that God was present in every circumstance and had a solution already prepared for every problem. He learned humility and trust and the value of keeping God’s directives even when they seemed to put you at a disadvantage. On several occasions David could have easily taken Saul’s life and no one would have blamed him. David, however, refused because he had learned that the throne had to be given by God, not taken by his own cunning. The delay, the cold nights, the threatening circumstances, the years that passed, the multiple rescues from Saul’s hand, provision in the wilderness, etc. all trained David’s heart to be king. In fact, it trained David to be “a man after God’s own heart.”

Faith is an internal perspective that sees present circumstances through the promises of God. It does not receive the condemnation of the world or the hopeless reports of those who do not know Jesus. It is never hopeless because Christ is our hope. It does not despair because even if physical life slips away, eternal life is waiting for us. Even if we die, when we die in faith we have run our race and won a crown. We are in Christ and he is in us.

Paul declares that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8), therefore, we are never separate from his love. We are never victims. We are only conquerors waiting to see the victory God has planned come to pass. Never ask “Why?” but ask “What do you have for me in this circumstance?” There are no losers in Christ, but only winners if we know what and who is ours. Blessings in the one who never makes his children victims.

I was sitting through a training on Christian life-coaching two days ago when the presenter, pastor David Houston, spoke about a self-help gospel that is so often preached in America these days. As he talked the Holy Spirit downloaded this phrase to me: “The gospel doesn’t promise a better you, it promises a new you.” I thought about that and it is absolutely true.

Jesus talked with Nicodemus about being “born again” (Jn.3:3) as if we don’t just receive a course correction when we come to Jesus but, rather, we start over entirely with a whole new set of potentials and a new nature.   Paul said, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). Too many of us view ourselves as being somewhat upgraded rather than transformed. We think of ourselves as struggling sinners saved by grace rather than God’s ordained representatives on the earth. “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen” (Rev. 1:5-6, KJV).

Many of us grew up singing the classic hymn, At the Cross, by Isaac Watts. The first verse says, “Alas! and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sov’reign die? Would He devote that sacred head,  For such a worm as I?” If Isaac was referring to our state before the cross, he might be correct. If he was referring to those who have already been saved, then he was miles from the truth. I have heard many sermons announcing our state as believers as still worm-like, arguing that the only difference between us and the unsaved is that we are forgiven. I’m sure those messages were an effort to keep us from being self-righteous and to help us maintain our humility – but they were wrong.

We are new creations as different from the worm as the butterfly is from the caterpillar. We know that transformation in nature as metamorphosis. In his letter to the Romans, Paul commands us to no longer conform to the patterns of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom.12:2). The Greek word that is translated as transformed is metamorpho. In addition to this verse, that word shows up in several other New Testament passages:

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:18)

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,             who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Phil. 3:20-21)

There he was transfigured (transformed) before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. (Mt. 17:2)

In each of these verses, the referenced change is radical change. Some word study guru’s suggest that the term implies a glory or a nature from within, finding expression on the outside. On the Mount of Transfiguration (same word that is translated as transformation), it is as if the glory of Christ’s spirit in the eternal realm, suddenly manifested in the natural realm. Our transformation suggests that the change that has taken place in our spiritual nature, is to make itself known in the natural realm – Christ in us, being seen and experienced through us.

Since that is true, we are not worms nor broken sinners that are merely forgiven, but carriers of God’s Spirit, his glory, and his eternal promises. We are children of God, ambassadors of the King, Messiah’s inheritance, citizens of heaven, his holy ones, priests of the Most High God, and personal friends of the Commander of the Armies of Heaven. That’s not a bad resume. When we came to Christ, our status in heaven was changed from sinner to all of that and more.

If we hold on to our old, pre-salvation identity we will progress very little for “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov.23:7, KJV). As we recognize and acknowledge our transformed status, our condition will begin to align with our position…from glory to glory. Paul reflects on that change in his letter to the church at Corinth. “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor.6:9-11).

Notice the past tense. And that is what some of you were. By the work of the Holy Spirit, these men and women had been changed, their very nature altered. There were not who they once were but were radically different. Their status had been changed as well as their identity. They were not just “drunkards” whose sins had been forgiven. They had been transformed. They were someone else.

I think 12-step programs have done a great deal of good in the world but they tend to deny that the very heart and nature of a person can change. Even if a person has been sober for 15 years, the introduction is still, “Hi, I’m Bill and I’m an alcoholic.” I know some former alcoholics who were delivered from that bondage by God and they are no longer alcoholics. They don’t just manage the addiction, they are free from the addiction. Transformation has taken place.

If you struggle as a follower of Jesus, you may want to spend some considerable time meditating on who you are in Christ. Don’t worry that you don’t feel like you are those things. If God says you are, then you are and you need to say that you are. His truth does not depend on your feelings to be true. We are all of those things in his eyes and his Spirit will help us begin to see ourselves in the same way if we will take hold of those truths. If you are a follower of Jesus, you have standing in heaven is much more than any president, celebrity, billionaire, dictator, athlete, or supermodel. Get that in your heart and everything changes. Continued blessings in Him!

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. (Rom.8:35-39)

Paul finishes this section of his letter, which translators have dubbed Romans 8, with a theological volley. It reveals the mindset of a spiritual warrior and a mindset that we must all adopt as we move into a probable season of persecution in the world and our nation. There is definitely a war on Christianity and Judaism unfolding all around the globe and we would be naïve to think we will escape it. The spirit of Anti-Christ is certainly on the move.

In the face of his own battles with this spirit, we should notice Paul’s emphasis in this section. It is not so much on power as it is on love. His great hope is the love of Christ and the devil’s inability to sever us from that love. As you look at this part of Paul’s letter, you realize that this love is a sustaining love. If you don’t watch the context, you might assume that Christ’s love keeps us from trouble in this world and just moves us from blessing to blessing as we live the good life above the fray. The context does not suggest that and Jesus never promised that either. In fact, what he did promise was persecution and trouble (see Matt.5:10-12 and John 16:33). He also promised great reward for those who did not abandon their faith in the midst of that trouble.

I have noticed an essential difference between our brothers and sisters in places like China and the Middle East and American believers. Those coming to Christ in “non-Christian” countries expect and even invite persecution and hardship for the sake of Jesus. They pray for strength to endure while we in America pray for God to deliver us from any hardships and almost take offense when they come.

Paul makes no promise that God’s umbrella of protection will keep us from struggles. To the contrary he uses words like hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, death and slaughter to describe the potential Christian experience in this world. Paul’s hope is not in a life of ease and blessing in this world but in the love of Christ sustaining him in seasons of hardship as he presses toward the next life.

Many believers see hardship as evidence of God’s indifference or abandonment. Paul saw hardship as the normal course of the believer’s life while we push back against the dominion of darkness. But in the midst of that he experienced the love and faithfulness of the risen Lord. In fact, it is in the midst of battle and struggle that we truly discover the goodness and faithfulness of God. Because of that he saw himself as more than a conqueror. The Greek word means to “completely prevail” and is actually a verb declaring that we live in a state of absolute triumph. The “indicative mood” of the verb makes it clear that Paul sees this state as an actual rather than a potential or figurative view of the believer’s life. The paradox is that we truly are more than conquerors even while sitting in a “Chi-com” cell in a re-education camp outside of Beijing or in a hospital room watching a loved one fight a losing battle with cancer. Only an eternal and relational view of our faith makes that possible.

Ultimately, for our faith to endure we must believe that God is, that God is always good, and that God is always motivated by his love toward us. We must also believe that the “norm” is this world is hardship at some level. We live in fallen world. We still live in enemy territory. We still have bodies subject to aging and our own bad choices in diet and exercise. Hardship comes in the form of persecution, broken relationships, damaged genes, internal struggles against temptation, demonic attack, and more. (Don’t think about it or you won’t want to get out of bed in the morning.) It is the rare believer and, probably, the one who keeps a low profile on the devil’s radar that doesn’t encounter significant battles in this world.

The victory comes in knowing the ultimate outcome of every struggle and every encounter with the enemy. The victory is often apparent in this world but at other times it won’t seem so apparent except that the “big win” is always being with Jesus. In the movie, Saving Private Ryan, Captain John Miller (played by Tom Hanks) told his men that his primary objective in the war was to get home to his wife. Our primary objective must also be to get home and our primary mindset must be that this world is not our home. How often do we find believers who are angry at God because some saintly person they knew died. If our primary goal for ourselves and others is to be with Jesus then we should not be angry when those we love reach that goal – maybe envious but not angry.

Paul’s celebration was not about “the good life” on earth but that no person, no demon, and no circumstance can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. No doubt there will be seasons of blessing in this life but there will also be seasons of battle. In all of that, the love and grace of God is assured and we can take heart in that. We will never be alone and his grace will also be sufficient. Knowing that, we can live without fear as those whose ultimate triumph is absolute and absolutely assured. Be of good courage.