Who we are in Christ in relation to our divine purpose

Messages for July 2017: Our Month of Destiny

Message for Sunday the 9th of July, 2017

Theme: Understanding the Pursuit of our Purpose

Topic: Who we are in Christ in relation to our divine purpose

Introduction: In Ps.82:5-7 we read: “They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.

I have said, ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most high.

But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” This text of scripture relays to us the adversity of man as a result of the ignorance of his identity which would reflect on the abuse to which most of them put their lives and as such ending up like mere men and falling like the evil princes of darkness who lost their places to the deceit of the devil due to their ignorance of who they really were. Today, we shall be looking at the above topic to enable us discover our identity from God’s perspective and see how it affects our purpose and enable us to take advantage of this light to become all we have been born again to be.

Who we are in Christ: This truth of who we are in Christ presupposes that before we came into oneness with Christ through the new birth experience we were something else. This is clearly brought out by Apostle Paul in 2Cor.5:17 thus:

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; and behold, all things are become new.”

Another scripture that clarifies this truth is Eph.5:6-8 where we are taught among other things that we were once darkness when we were children of disobedience and now the new birth has made us light and we are admonished to walk as children of light.

On the other hand, we are told in Gal.3:13-14 that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us so that the blessing of Abraham might come on us through faith so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. The curse of the law under which we operated includes the entire curse in the word of God from Genesis 3 when man fell short of the glory of God through sin. We can bring all the curses under three headings of poverty, sickness and death. Since the curse, the mission of the devil has been to steal, kill and destroy and he does it through poverty sickness and death. Our concern here however is what becoming redeemed has made us. When we are redeemed, the following benefits become accrued to us:

1. We become new creations in Christ Jesus in fulfillment of prophecy and we thereby receive a new heart that can accommodate the Spirit of God who begins to lead us from within. See Ezek.36:26-27; 2Cor.5:17; Heb.10:14-17.

As new creations we enjoy the following benefits:

• Our sins are forgiven and God does not remember them again. Isa.43:25 and Heb.8:12-13.

• All our past sins are erased so that like a new born baby we cease to have a past. See 2Cor.5:17 and Isa.43:25. Since God does not remember your past, stop dwelling on it because by so doing you will be living in the past and those who live in the past would pass away with the past because what you dwell on in your thoughts all the time is what you end up creating.

• We are given the power to become the children of God who can grow up into sons of God. Jn.1:12; Isa.8:18 and Rm.8:14-16.

• We become partakers of divine nature through the intimate knowledge of Christ. See 2Pet.1:3-4 and Gal.2:20-21. As a partaker of divine nature, you can walk in the spirit, you can walk in love because God is love and whoever dwells in God dwells in love, you can exercise the power of God as God’s man or woman on earth. Please understand that to truly operate like this, we must grow up spiritually by feasting on the word of God and doing what the word says and praying in the Holy Spirit’s language often to enable us access God and hear His voice and follow His Spirit. See Jude 1:20-25 and 1Jn.3:21-24. Please for a proper understanding of this truth, read the entire 1Jn.3 in your private study and believe God for insight.

• We become ambassadors of Christ representing God to the entire lost human race still searching for him by the various light God gives us to demonstrate him to them. See 2Cor.5:20; Mt.28:18-19; Mk.16:15-18 and Acts 1:8. More would be said on this later.

2. We can now walk in the spirit as we renew our minds with the word of God. Apostle Paul throws light on this truth when he said in Gal.4:1 that the heir as long as he is a child is no different from a slave even though he is lord of all. This is why some believers suffer the same thing the world suffers because they refused to grow up to the point where they can exercise dominion in accordance with God’s original purpose for making man. See Gen.1:26-28; Rm.12:1-2. To walk in the spirit, we must grow up spiritually. The demands are the same as paragraph 1 dot 4 above. If we read the word of God daily with a heart eager to know God intimately, and do whatever the word says, we will gradually grow up enough to operate divine nature and live like God. We will not then need any encouragement to live holy lives we will be holy as He is holy indeed. The secret of success in the kingdom of God is actually the understanding and ability to walk in the spirit because where this is the case in the life of a believer, he or she would not fulfill the lust of the flesh and can therefore maintain friendship with God and eternal life. See Jn.17:3; Jn.5:24; Rm.8:1[b; kjv]; Mt.7:24-27; James 1:21-25 and Lk.6:46-49.

3. We are now the light of the world; a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. This entitles us to be famous in our respective callings for our unique leadership abilities while our life styles show others the way to live. We become enabled to demonstrate the excellent spirit by which we can shine through our good works and glorify God thereby. See Mt.5:14-16; Dan.1:8; Dan.1:16-21; Gen.41:37-44 and Rm.8:28-30. Note here that in the case of Daniel Nebuchadnezzar named him after his god. This was the extent of reverence he commanded from the most powerful man on earth at that time because he allowed his light to shine. Also when God was to judge Egypt after enslaving Israel for four hundred years, He called Moses and made him a god to pharaoh. See Ex.7:1-2. In the same way, when we position ourselves where God wants us through obedience, He makes us gods over all that have been responsible for all the adversities we used to experience. This month, God is set to judge the wicked that have risen against us; He has therefore made us gods over them. This is why we have begun to implement the instruction to praise him. As we do this, He comes to take over and execute vengeance on the wicked including the wicked hiding amongst us.

4. We are now the salt of the earth. This means that our being here adds value to our environment because of our status as believers walking in the spirit. Mt.5:13 – we demonstrate our saltiness by being all we are called to be. For instance, our prayers and praise here brings down God’s presence and in His presence, there is fullness of joy and pleasures forever. See Ps.16:11, 22:3; 114:1-8; Acts 4:23-34.

5. We are now kings and priest to God: By destiny, through the new birth experience, we are kings and priests that are expected to reign on the earth just like Jesus Christ did in his earthly ministry. See Rm.5:17 and Rev.5:9-10

To reign as kings, we must eliminate the corruption brought by sin and live godly lives which in turn guarantee a glorious destiny.

For want of space and time, we shall be drawing the curtain here today on this topic. Next week, we shall continue to look at the second part of this message and I believe that by the time we are done we would have come to the sublime understanding that we cannot truly divorce our identity from our purpose because most of the time our identity gives us a clue to what our purpose is even though not all of us are smart enough to know it.

Meanwhile, there may be someone reading this or listening to this message that is yet to make the choice of Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and Saviour and desires to do so right away; please make your choice for him by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and you shall be saved:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.