Are You Fully Convinced

 

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

—Romans 4:20-21 (NKJV)

 

 

Abraham was fully convinced that God—who had promised him in his old age that Sarah would bear him a son—was able to provide that promise. Being fully convinced is believing without a doubt. Are you fully convinced? What promises are you hanging on to? What does God’s Word say about your circumstances?  

 

Facts are what you see and experience in this natural world. But facts that are real in this world aren’t the same as God’s Truth in His supernatural realm. God’s Truth surpasses the facts, and when His Truth is believed by faith, it has the power to change them. Abraham didn’t waver at God’s promise through unbelief. In his natural world, he couldn’t see the fulfillment of His promise. The fact was Sarah was way too old to have a child. But Abraham completely believed God, and he praised God for what he hadn’t yet received. Instead of the facts defeating him, his faith was strengthened.

 

Faith is the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). It takes no faith to believe facts. You can see them. It only takes faith to believe God’s Truth that you can’t see. That is why we are told to walk by faith and not by what we see (2 Corinthians 5:7). Faith comes by hearing the Word (Romans 10:17). The Word is Truth (John 17:17). The Truth that you hear and know in your heart will set you free (John 8:32). God’s Truth doesn’t benefit your life if you don’t believe it.

 

If we are going to see the supernatural power of God, we have to connect what we believe and how we think to God’s Word. Then we can see God actually making a difference in our lives and in someone else’s life. It is easy to identify with what you experience—especially when you deal with symptoms of illness or problems in circumstances. To walk by faith and not by sight, you have to intentionally choose to have faith in God’s Truth over what you see.

 

Do you believe only what you see? Do you doubt God?  Being double-minded will keep you from receiving (James 1:6-8). Face the facts in your life, but don’t allow them to consume you. Believe what God promises in His Word. The facts of your physical life—circumstance or sickness or need—can change when you believe His Truth.

 

Two blind men followed Jesus asking him to have mercy on them. 

 

“When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith, let it be done to you,’ and their sight was restored” (Matthew 9:28-30, NIV).

 

Faith doesn’t create anything. It only provides what Jesus has already created for you with the gift of His life. Believing by faith in God’s Truth is the power that alters your reality. Praise God for His promise. Be fully convinced that God’s Truth is greater than any fact before your eyes. Instead of the facts defeating you, allow faith to strengthen you. According to your faith, you receive.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/are-you-fully-convinced.html

 

Believe God

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

—Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)

 

Your faith is what pleases God. He rewards those who diligently seek Him with all their heart. And persistent seeking of His truth rewards you. The truth of His Word takes root and comes alive within you. You believe without seeing because you believe His promises. 

 

The Word is powerful within you when you act upon it and choose to live its truth—even when what you experience is not seen, heard, or felt. When you take what God has given in His Word and make it your own, your attitude about your life changes. You see beyond what you experience.

 

Just wishing that God’s truth is yours does not make it your own. Wavering in believing what God promises fills you with fear and doubt. Fear robs you of a sound mind and makes you question if God loves you enough to meet your need. God meets your need. It is met in His truth and in His way. You take possession of His truth and make it your own truth. And then it becomes powerful in your life.

 

When you believe God, you see with faith what has not been seen or experienced. Believing His truth pleases God, and He rewards you according to what you believe (Matthew (9:29). If you believe His Word and envision His promise, you receive its benefit. If you don’t believe, then you miss the abundant life Jesus died to give you.

 

To be carnal or naturally minded is death to your faith. To be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6). Draw a line in the sand, and choose to believe. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God—not with your mind but with your heart (Romans 10:17). Walk by faith and not by what you see (2 Corinthians 5:7). If you doubt, you will never receive what God promises (James 1:6-8). But when you believe, nothing is impossible with God (Mark 9:23). Reach out believing—without doubting—and seek Him with all your heart. You believe before you receive.

 

Do you believe that God loves you and rewards those who seek Him? As you think in your heart, that is what you believe (Proverbs 23:7).

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/believe-god.html

 

Just Believe

Do not be afraid; only believe.

—Mark 5:36 (NKJV)

 

Often, we allow our faith to extend to only what we experience. “If you believe,” Jesus told the father of the epileptic boy in Mark 9, “all things are possible!” Jesus brought healing to those tortured and sick during His ministry on earth. He hasn't changed. He still heals now because He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Don’t allow your experiences in life to limit Him in your life. The epileptic boy had suffered forever, and suddenly He was healed. 

 

Let's look at two other people in Mark 5:21-43 who might not have benefited from the healing power of Jesus because of their different life experiences. The woman spent everything she had seeking healing. She believed if she could only touch Jesus' clothes she would be healed. The other was a ruler in the synagogue, a man of the law, who feared losing his daughter and reached out to the very person who was held in suspicion by many of his peers. 

 

Jairus, a ruler in the synagogue, fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to save his daughter. “My little daughter,” Jairus cried out, “lies at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.”  

 

A disturbance held up Jesus and Jairus as they went to his house to see his sick daughter. The street was crowded with the throngs of people following them. On the way, a woman that had bled for twelve years touched Jesus’ garment, and He felt healing power go out from him. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. He looked around to see who had done it. The woman came to Him, trembling in fear, knowing what had happened to her. She fell before Jesus and confessed what she had done. Jesus said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction."

 

While Jesus was still speaking to the woman, someone came from Jairus' house, who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” As soon as Jesus heard the words that were spoken, He immediately said to Jairus, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” 

 

Jesus told the woman that her faith had made her well. Then when Jairus was told his daughter was already dead, he told him to just believe.

 

There is not one place in the Bible where someone came to Jesus and didn’t receive healing. The question is not if it's God's will to heal us. The question is, "Do we want Him to heal us?"  

 

This woman had stopped the Teacher from getting to Jairus’ house in time. And now he was told his daughter was gone.  They had all heard the man’s report that the girl was dead. And it was a real report. She was dead. But Jesus knew that His Father had the final word—the final authority. "Only believe," Jesus had said to Jairus. Jesus and three of his disciples kept on moving toward Jairus’ house.  

 

Don’t allow what you have experienced or what any person has told you to create doubt that Jesus wants you well. The woman pushed her way through a throng to get to Jesus. She believed no matter what she experienced. Jairus could have been offended, hurt, and mad by the disruption caused by the woman on the way to his house. After all, his daughter was dying. Jairus could have used his authority as a ruler in the synagogue to remove the woman when she halted Jesus, but he didn’t. Jairus waited, and he heard of the woman's healing at the very moment he heard his daughter had died. He thought about what the Lord had told this woman. “Your faith has made you well.” And then Jairus thought of what Jesus had said to him. “Only believe.” 

 

Jesus and the three disciples stepped into Jairus’ house and encountered those who were weeping. Jesus said to them, "Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." When they ridiculed Jesus, He threw them out. He took the father and the mother and the three disciples and entered where the child lay. He took her by the hand and said to her, "Little girl, I say to you, arise." Immediately the girl arose and walked. The disciples, Jairus, and his wife were all amazed.

 

Jesus asks us to only believe—to throw out unbelief.  He says, "Your faith will make you well."  He then asks us what He asked the man at the pool of Bethesda, who had waited for thirty-eight years to be healed. "Would you like to be well?" (John 5:1-9).

 

Will you choose to believe what Jesus says instead of the sickness that has come against you? Will you believe that He wants you well? You are loved by God, who desires you to be in health and prosper as your soul prospers (3 John 2). You, too, can hear Jesus say, “Your faith has made you well.” 

 

Just believe.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/just-believe.html

 

Finished by Faith

 

This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

—Romans 1:17 (NLT)

 

The Good News of the Gospel tells us that we are made right with God through faith in Christ. Faith in Jesus is the only way to have a righteous life. We can’t earn it. It has already been earned. Without faith in the finished work of Christ, we have no hope. 

 

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” Paul wrote (Romans 10:17, NKJ). 

 

Faith comes from hearing the Word. You were made right with God when you believed the Gospel in your heart, and you were saved when you declared it (Romans 10:10). You accepted its truth by faith and knew you were loved. Do you still know you are loved or have problems in life shaken your assurance? Having heard the Word in the past doesn’t build your faith now. You have to hear the Word (present tense) again and again to renew your mind (Romans 12:2).

 

When your problems and the enemy’s attacks and lies convince you that God doesn’t love you, you will strive to win God’s love back. But He has never left you or stopped loving you. There is nothing you have to do to earn God’s love. He has loved you from the beginning. He accepted you as His own when you believed in Jesus. You became His righteousness and belong completely to Him. 

Believing who you are in Christ is the only way to be fully convinced of His love for you.

 

Paul knew how to rejoice when he ran into problems because He knew who He was in Christ. 

 

“We can rejoice, too,” Paul wrote, “when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (Romans 5:3-5, NLT).

 

When we believe that God already has the answer for our problems, we praise Him. Those problems develop strength of character instead of defeating us. We have hope and great confidence in God. We know that He first loved us (I John 4:19). And that His work of salvation in us doesn’t lack a thing. It is complete. Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1). The hope God has given us never leads to disappointment! When we know and believe that what we need is already ours, we live by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthian 5:7)! And when we believe, no enemy—no lie—nothing has any power to come against us.

 

Do you want to live life to the fullest? His life in you is lived by faith. When you believe that you are completely new and lack nothing in Christ, what you see and feel doesn’t determine your peace and joy. Christ determines who you are.

 

The Holy Spirit reveals who you are in the Word. Renew your mind with God’s truth (Romans 12:2). Believe, my friend, in the finished work of Jesus! Know who you are in Christ. Faith fuels you. Your mind will be flooded with the love of the Holy Spirit, and you will know that the love of God fully dwells in you. 

 

“I have glorified You on the earth,” Jesus said to His Father. “I have finished the work which You have given Me to do (John 17:4, NKJV).

 

When you believe you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21)—when you believe that the work is already done (John 17:4), you stand strong through each problem in life knowing God has already taken care of whatever you face You see God’s finished outcome. And you choose to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/finished-by-faith.html

God Works Through Us

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

— Ephesians 3:20 (NKJV)

 

We don’t use God. He uses us. God asks us to let Him live through us—not to live for Him. When we live for Him out of a sense of duty, we serve Him out of our own ability instead of His strength. When we allow Him to live through us, He does abundantly more than we could ask or think.  

 

Christ has given us an exchanged life—not a changed life. He exchanged our sins for His righteousness. We are new. The old is gone. When we surrender our will—our reasoning—our perception to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to guide and empower us, Christ lives through us. We serve Him out of His power at work within us. Serving Him flows out of faith instead of duty. It becomes a joy because everything rests on Him.

 

Yes, God does abundantly more than we reason or think, but we must not forget the whole verse. He does abundantly more through us when we surrender to Him. God doesn’t want us burned out from duty. He wants us fulfilled in His grace. 

 

Surrendering to God is surrendering to all of Him. It is not a pick-and-choose surrender. Don’t refuse what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. Don’t reject receiving the gifts that He wishes to bestow on you. Deny any fear. Allow the Holy Spirit to teach and guide and empower you as He never has before. Allow Him to challenge your human reasoning and reveal Himself to you.

 

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20, NKJV).

 

God uses as much of you as you allow.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/god-works-through-us.html

His Favorite

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

—Romans 5:8 (NIV)

 

 

We are God’s passion. Jesus gave His highest for us. There is nothing more He could have given. His passionate love bought us freedom from sin, sickness, and gave us the gift of His righteousness. He held nothing back from us. His fervent grace was costly. It cost Him everything, and even though His grace cost us nothing, it yearns within us to love as He first loved us.

 

Have we allowed His grace to change our perspective from the old person we once were? Have we allowed our failures, problems, and even memory of sins that were crucified with Christ to hold us back? When we believe in our hearts that His passionate Grace is completely ours, we are overwhelmed, overjoyed, and overflowing with His love. The old person is gone. We are free to love as He first loved us (1 John 4:19). There is nothing we would ever deny Him. His passionate, forgiving, and healing love flows without hesitation through us.

 

In 1 Kings 19:21, Elisha, having been chosen by Elijah, walks away from all he has had. He destroys what is left in his life that might draw him back from his call. He accepts the cloak and purpose of His Master without hesitation. Jesus calls us to let go of the bondage of the past that once defined us. He calls us to let go of what has kept us from understanding the righteousness He has given—to believe by faith in the miracle of His finished work of grace. With that surrender, we receive the revelation of who He is in us. We are fueled by His passionate love. On the Cross, He declared that we were His ultimate passion. When we believe who He declares us to be, He is our ultimate passion. We walk away from all we have believed ourselves to be. We accept who Jesus says we are.

 

Do you believe what His passion has given you? Abandon who you have believed yourself to be. Believe who He says you are. Just as Elisha accepted Elijah’s cloak, accept Christ’s identity as your own. Hold nothing back. Surrendering is only costly when you do not believe the cost of what He has given you. When you believe the truth that you are new and complete in His grace, you flow in His love and power. You hold nothing back. With your surrender comes the greatest fulfillment—the belief that your loving Father is absolutely real within you. 

 

While you were yet a sinner, Christ gave His life for you. His love declared that you were God’s favorite. You are now new in Christ’s love because He held nothing back. You hold nothing back when you grasp the depth of His passion for you. Your whole perspective changes. You believe that He first loved you. Your love for Him just overflows. It cannot be contained. His unconditional love in you fuels your passion to love as He first loved you.

 

When we believe who we are in His grace. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/his-favorite.html

 

He Values You—Trust Him

 

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.

—Isaiah 26:3 NKJV

 

 Nothing is constant in life. You may feel peace when life is good and experience fear when life is uncertain and hard. You don’t have to live by what you feel. Fear doesn’t have to control you. Christ’s peace has overcome fear’s power to control you (John 16:33). He has overcome your roller-coaster ride of feelings. His peace is yours (John 14:27). For you to experience His peace, you have to believe the infinite value of God’s love for you and the infinite value that you are to Him.

 

The only constant that will keep you in perfect peace is believing how much God loves you and what His love has given you. God hasn’t given you a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). You have the capacity to believe He takes care of you. You have His love that speaks life. You have the mind of Christ that lives by faith and not by feelings (1 Corinthians 2:16). But if you don’t believe the truths the Word reveals, you will not experience His peace. When you are at peace in your relationship with God, you believe the infinite value He has placed on your life. When life is difficult, you have no reason to doubt Him. You can believe that every spiritual blessing is already yours in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). 

 

Never trust your feelings. They will betray you. They always change. Trust God and the truth of His Word. His Words are life and never change (John 6:63). God asks you to look beyond what you feel—what your natural mind says is true—and believe what He says is true—what you cannot see.  

 

You receive faith by hearing the Word of God and acting upon your faith by being renewed in the spirit of your mind (Romans 10:17, Ephesians 4:23-24). Faith requires you to trust in the truth of God's Word beyond what you experience or feel. When you allow the Word to teach you what is true instead of allowing your feelings to tell you what is true, you are renewed by God’s truth. The Word transforms the way you think (Romans 12:2), and you begin to trust God’s Word rather than how you feel.  When you continually focus your mind on the truth of what God says instead of what you feel, you experience the power of His faith over your feelings. Your feelings will eventually be controlled by His truth. 

 

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:8-9, NKJV). 

 

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6, NKJV). 

 

God guards your mind and keeps you in perfect peace when your thoughts are on Him instead of what is happening or what might happen in your life. Don’t dwell on personal problems you have or might have. Your mind will run havoc with feelings of fear. Be spiritually minded—see the things that He promises as yours. Think on the blessings of God, and experience life and peace.

 

You are of infinite value to Him. How do you value Him? You can trust Him.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/he-values-youtrust-him.html

 

 

 

Christ Has Won

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

—John 10:10 (NKJV)

 

The enemy wants to steal your passion—your peace—your joy—your health. His ultimate purpose is to destroy your faith. He is so jealous of anything Jesus has given you that he comes against you with sickness, fear, worry, despair, and every lie he can plant in your mind to keep you from experiencing an abundant life. The enemy challenges everything Christ has given you. He deceives you, trying to make you believe more in his lies than in the truth of God’s Word. He knows if you realize the power Christ has given you, he will have no power over you. He is aware that if you know God's truth, it will free you from his lies (John 8:32). 

 

When you realize you have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead living inside of you (Ephesians 1:18-19), nothing the enemy attempts can steal, kill, or destroy your faith in the security of the relationship you have with the God who loves you.

 

The thief that comes to steal from you can only steal what you possess. He can’t take what you don’t have. You have the fruit of the Spirit living in you—love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You have the healing of Calvary and freedom from the sin that once defined you. Jesus paid the price to set you free. Satan only fights you for what Jesus has given you. He tries to steal your peace, stir up fear, create frustration—make you angry, jealous, and impatient. He knows if he can destroy your confident hope in what Jesus has done for you, you will have a defeated life. 

 

When we know our identity in Christ and what salvation has given us, it is hard for the thief to steal what we possess. When we know that we are children of the Most-High God—that we are blameless in Christ—that we are secured and sealed by the Holy Spirit—that we are God’s heirs to His inheritance of an abundant life of peace and joy and mountain-moving faith, we can rebuke Satan with the authority that Jesus has given us. God is our Abba Father. He is the power within us. 

 

When the naked man, terrorized by the legion of demons, met Jesus, everything in his life changed. He was healed and sat down peacefully at Jesus’ feet—right in his mind and fully clothed (Mark 5:15). When we realize that we can be delivered from Satan’s lies like this healed man, we no longer are naked with no defense from the enemy. We clothe ourselves in our new identity in Jesus’s finished work of redemption. We realize our authority and speak it. And we take back any gift the enemy has stolen. And these are gifts Jesus died for us to possess—joy—peace—health. Jesus doesn’t have to die again for them to be ours. His agony on the Cross was enough to finish it all. We need to take and live and believe and speak the miracle of grace we could never give ourselves. Jesus bought salvation and healing and provision for every need. He gave us the authority of the power of God. If we don’t exercise what He died to give us, we make what cost Jesus His life worthless. God wants you to have an abundant life. He wants you to have the life Jesus died for you to have. 

 

Whoever you submit to becomes the one to whom you listen—the one who controls your mind and your feelings. Submit yourself to God, and resist the enemy. He will flee from you (James 4:7). Rebuke and resist and stand against the liar who comes to steal, kill, and destroy your faith. Yield yourself to God, the lover of your soul. You have the authority and the power of God with you. And Christ has already won your deliverance. 

 

God promises you abundant life, filled with His spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3). The power of life and death is in what you speak (Proverbs 18:21). Speak with the authority He has given you. God always keeps His promises. 

 

© 2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/christ-has-won.html

 

Within You

—For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

—Colossians 2:9-10 (NKJV)

 

As a born-again believer, your spirit is reborn with the Spirit of the living God (John 3:6). You have the fullness of God living within you. (Colossians 2:9-10). The Resurrection power that raised Christ from the dead is within you (Ephesians 1:18-19). 

 

How often do we feel powerless over circumstances and relationship issues and illness and life? Resurrection power is ours. But many times we don’t exercise the power we have because we don’t feel it. You don’t have to feel something for it to be yours. God wants us to have faith in what we can’t feel and act upon it. To live an overcoming life of faith, we must continually renew our minds to believe the fullness of God that completely lives within us (Romans 12:2, Colossians 2:9-10). We have to start believing that the power of God is ours and exercise it by faith.

 

God living outside of us is not as personal as God living within us. Can we change our perspective to believe God is within us? God came as Christ to be with us, but when He died and we received Him in our hearts, He came to live within us. He is real. He is relationship and life. And out of the God within us—out of the depth of our heart—flows rivers of His living water (John 7:38). He is our living water—the Resurrection power that rises from within. By faith, we release who He is in us. We exercise by faith the truth of His Word. 

 

In Hebrews 1:3, we read where Jesus is the express image of God. He is a perfect representation of His Father. 1 Timothy 3:16 says that Jesus is God in the flesh. “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” Jesus told Philip in the Upper Room (John 14:9). We are in Christ, and He is within us. As Jesus is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). 

 

Jesus, as the perfect image of God, has perfect faith. Perfect health. Perfect wisdom. Perfect power. And the perfect fullness of God that was revealed in Christ lives within us (Ephesians 1:18, Colossians 2:9-10). It is only in Christ and His perfect sacrifice that we have perfected faith, health, wisdom, and power. We were not partially redeemed and partially born-again by the blood of Christ. His work on our behalf was perfect and complete. However, in the flesh, we are imperfect in our faith—in our health—in our wisdom—in our own power. But in our spirit where we were born-again, Christ has given us His righteousness and the perfection of His finished work. He lives within us. His Resurrection power is ours. To live our lives fully relying on His power, we have to believe what is ours. Believing who we are in Jesus Christ is essential to understand that what we feel does not determine what we believe.

 

Paul prays that “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:18-20, NKJV).

 

Paul is not praying for the believers in Ephesus to receive these truths from God. He is praying for their eyes to be opened to what God has already given them. Paul wants them to know that the death-defeating and life-giving power of God is theirs. He wants them to know the incredible truth of their identity in Christ.

 

God wants us to know that within us we have the same power that raised Christ from the dead. It is Christ’s authority. And it is ours (Colossians 9:10, Mark 16:17-18). 

 

—Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

—Romans 12:2 (NKJV)

 

To believe what we have received in our born-again spirits, we must be renewed in our minds. To release and experience the fullness of the transforming power of God in our minds and physical lives, we must be convinced of who we are in Christ Jesus. God’s perfect will is for us to know who we are in Him. Out of His fullness, we will know our passion and live His purpose.

 

—Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

—2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)

 

You are new in Christ—born again in your spirit. To believe old things have passed away—the blemish of sin—the bitterness of rejection—the illness that comes against you—the feelings of not being worthy of God’s love, allow the Holy Spirit to renew your mind with the truth of the Word. His life-changing power lives within you. Choose to believe God’s truth that you are chosen, redeemed, blameless, set apart, blessed, and loved with His everlasting love (Ephesians 1:1-14).

 

Christ, the hope of glory, lives in you (Colossians 1:27).

 

© 2021 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/01/within-you.html

 

Known as He Knows You

 

Today is the first day of 2022. It is a new year. You want God’s best in your life. And that best is experienced when you know yourself as He knows you. God desires us to know Him—to be His people of faith—to act upon the truth of His Word—to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). But when we don’t know the change that Christ has made within us, we can’t live the new life He has given us. A lack of knowledge keeps us from our new life of promise (Hosea 4:6).

 

The Word is a powerful message of God’s love for you. In the passage of Ephesians 1:1-14, Paul strongly reveals truths about who you are in Christ. And these truths reveal the fact that when God sees you, He sees Jesus. You are completely new and righteous in your spirit (2 Corinthians 5:17, 21). You don’t have to struggle to receive what you have already received by faith. The old in your life is now dead. You live in the power of His new life in you. Knowing who you are in Christ is knowing how God sees you. As Christ is, so are you in this world (1 John 4:17). sees you. As Christ is, so are you in this world (1 John 4:17).

 

People who know who they are in Christ are people of faith. They don’t ever forget the miracle of the Grace of Jesus that has set them free. Their identity is not based on the opinions of others or on circumstances that are forever changing. Their identity is based on the redeeming and unchanging work of Christ.

 

People of faith know how God sees them—holy and set apart—blameless and pure—redeemed and forgiven—covered by His Grace—overwhelmingly blessed—chosen to be His before He created the world—called to be His children—lavished by His precious Grace—unconditionally loved and accepted. They know that the Grace of Jesus has given them a wonderful inheritance of every spiritual blessing. They are confident that their lives will work out according to His plan and purpose (Ephesians 1:1-14). They know that these promises are who they are in Christ and that His identity is theirs.

 

People who know who they are in Christ are not just satisfied with the status quo. They are hungry to understand all Jesus has given His life for them to have. They know that what God has for them is as great as what they envision. They choose to believe and walk by faith as if that vision is already manifested in their lives.

 

People who know who they are in Christ praise God for His love for them. They know He never leaves or forsakes them (Hebrews 13:15). They don’t live by their emotions. They praise Him for what they can’t see but they know is real. The peace of God holds them steady through the ups and downs of life (Philippians 4:6-7). Joy in the faithfulness of God gives them the power to stand strong no matter what happens. Their love of God abounds because they know God loved them first (1 John 4:19). They receive God’s unconditional love without any hesitation because they believe who they are in Christ. When you appreciate what Jesus has given you, it keeps on appreciating and flourishing in your life. You know the value of what He has done for you. 

 

People who know who they are in Christ know that God has given them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him (Ephesians 1:17). They know that God wants to reveal Himself to them. They believe that the Holy Spirit guides them into all truth. They know the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak on His own authority. Whatever He hears, He speaks (John 16:13).

 

People who know their identity in Christ know how important it is for them to live by faith. Faith calls for our response (James 2:26). Our response to what Christ has done for us pleases Him. And God rewards those who diligently seek to know who they are in Him (Hebrews 11:6).

 

When we start understanding who we are in Christ, then we start to understand the Resurrection power of the new life within us. What Christ accomplished on the Cross is already ours. We see that His finished work is done. We know that all has been won. And we walk not as the world defines us, but as who He says we are.

 

You are a person of faith. You are everything the Word says you are. Knowing yourself as He knows you, sets you free. Welcome to 2022.

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

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