His Victory in You

 

 

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

—1 John 5:4-5

 

Whatever is born of God overcomes any issue or problem, and anything in this world. You believe Jesus is the Son of God. You are born of God. You are a new person in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Christ has overcome the world. Christ, the hope of glory, is in you (Colossians 1:27). Jesus Christ is your victory (1 Corinthians 15:57). His life in you is lived by the faith He has given you (Galatians 2:20, KJV). Believe it, and live it. Walk by His faith and not by your sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

 

“I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 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, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:16-23, NKJV).

 

The fullness of Christ fills you! Grasp what Christ has given you! He has not left you powerless! You have His power in you. If you don’t exercise the power He has given you, you won’t walk in His victory. You won’t experience the promises that are yours in Christ. You will remain controlled by circumstances and emotions and the opinions of others instead of the truth of God’s Word.

 

Don’t allow the things of this life or this world or anyone else to dictate what you believe. The Holy Spirit wants to give you His wisdom and revelation knowledge so you will know the hope of your calling, the riches of what you have received in Christ, and the greatness of His power when you believe Him.

 

Your faith in Jesus Christ is your victory, overcoming everything in this world. You have overcome in Him. Why would you settle for anything less?

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/11/his-victory-in-you.html

 

Your Promise in Christ is True

 

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

—1 Timothy 6:12 (NKJV)

 

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). We fight the good fight of faith with the knowledge of the Word of God and by believing and declaring the truth of who we are in Christ.

 

“Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God” (1 Corinthians 15:34a, NKJV).

 

The enemy battles us from within our minds with lies—with deception—and twists Scripture to deceive us. He tempts us to believe things contrary to God’s truth. We have to know the truth of God’s Word and what Christ has given us. We must wake up to the knowledge of His righteousness which is ours in Christ to be able to fight the enemy.

 

We fight the enemy from the position of the righteousness Christ has given us. When we submit to God, we submit our thought life to Him. The Holy Spirit convinces us of our right standing in Christ. When we understand how to fight sin from a position of righteousness, then we can understand how to fight the battle for our promises from a position of victory in Christ.

 

Many believers don’t have knowledge of God in regard to the righteousness Jesus purchased for them. When you know the power of the righteousness Christ has given you, you are filled with spiritual wisdom in your knowledge of Him (Ephesians 1:17). Awake to the righteousness He has given you. Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word to you. Jesus has won the total and final victory over hell and sin and sickness and death and the enemy! His work is perfect, and it is done! 

 

You fight the good fight of faith from a position of victory. You never fight with an attitude of defeat. Take hold of the promises that are yours in the assurance of the new life Christ has given you. Your words either speak life or they speak death (Proverbs 18:21). Speak the living Truth of God’s promise to you. And hold fast to the confession of your hope without wavering, for God who promised you is faithful (Hebrews 10:23). 

 

How do you fight the good fight of faith and hang on to your promise when you are battle-weary? Take hold of the promise God has given you. Stand and trust Him. Take up the shield of faith with which you extinguish all the lies of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16). Know the Word. You can’t stand and trust God if you don’t know His Word. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God in your heart (Romans 10:17). 

 

“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:23-24, NKJV).

 

Believing doesn’t happen when you have received the answer to your prayer. You must believe when you pray that you have already received your answer. It may be a while before you experience your promise. Time often passes before the mountain you told to be gone is removed. You receive your promise by faith. Believe and take His promise as your own. When you speak to your mountain—when you pray believing—your promise will come to pass.  

 

Believe that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Believe God’s promise is true and that when you pray nothing will keep you from receiving. When you believe these truths, you are able to stand and fight the good fight of faith—declaring what you believe in God’s realm is true for you. 

 

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2 Corinthians 1:20, NKJV).

 

The promises of God are yes and amen. According to what you believe, you will receive (Matthew 9:29). Don’t give up believing. Your promise in Christ is true. 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/11/your-promise-in-christ-is-true.html

 

 

 

 

The Mind of Christ

 

The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

—1 Corinthians 2:15-16.  

 

 

1 Corinthians 2:15 in the Living Bible reads, “But the spiritual man has insight into everything, and that bothers and baffles the man of the world, who can’t understand him at all.” 

 

The spiritual man that Paul referred to in 1 Corinthians 2:15 is the opposite of the natural man that he referred to in 1 Corinthians 2:14. The natural man can’t understand the things of God because they must be spiritually discerned. The spiritual man is someone who is not ruled by his emotions and natural feelings and thoughts. He is filled and led by the Spirit of God.

 

The word “judgment” (used in 1 Corinthians 2:15, NKJV) is the ability to analyze and discern people and situations. Paul basically said that a spiritual person is someone who is led by the wisdom of God and is competent to judge people and situations correctly. 

 

“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11, NKJV).

 

In this verse and also in 1 Corinthians 12:16, Paul explained that no one understands the way God thinks except the Holy Spirit and those whom He teaches. A person who doesn’t know Christ doesn’t have the Spirit within him. So he cannot judge a person who is led and governed by the Spirit of God.

 

“For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16, NKJV).

 

We have all of God’s wisdom—not just a little portion. Some people can’t grasp this because they know they aren’t perfect. Their natural minds and natural thoughts and natural abilities fall short of the glory of God. They make mistakes—have human emotions and feelings—therefore, they believe they could never have the mind of Christ. 

 

Our natural minds are limited and certainly don’t know everything. But in our born-again spirit, we are a completely new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). That is where we have the mind of Christ. Our spirits have been totally reborn by the Holy Spirit into the image of God (Colossians 3:10).  Because we have been reborn in our spirits by the Holy Spirit, we have received God’s power to understand all things (1 John 2:20). The spiritual part of us has received the mind of Christ while our natural minds have to be renewed to understand what we have received. 

 

Since we are new creations in Christ and created in the image of God (Colossians 3:10, 2 Corinthians 5:17), we have been reborn in God’s perfect wisdom. But the knowledge we have received in our spirits needs to impact our natural minds—the way we think, our emotions, and our actions. That is why the renewing of our natural mind is so important (Romans 12:2). It is not our spirits that teach us. It is the Holy Spirit who trains our natural mind to let the perfect wisdom of Christ take precedence over our natural thinking. We choose to “put on” the new nature that was created in the image of God (Colossians 3:10, Ephesians 4:24).

 

The Word of God is Spirit, and it is life (John 6:63). God is the Word, and He lives within us (John 1:1). The Holy Spirit renews our natural mind with His Word. As we study the Word with the revelation knowledge of the Holy Spirit, our natural mind is molded and conformed to the mind of Christ.

 

“His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4, NKJV).

 

Don’t we wish more than anything else to understand what we have received from God—to understand the very things that empower us to live the righteousness Christ has given us? 

 

“Be renewed in the spirit of your mind,” Paul declared! “Put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:23-24, NKJV).

 

Allow the Holy Spirit to renew your mind with the truth of God’s Word—over and over and over. Plant it in your heart until you believe you have the mind of Christ. You can then understand with His understanding instead of what your natural mind experiences. Put on the new identity that is yours in Christ. You can walk by faith in His righteousness and not trust the emotions your natural thoughts dictate. The mind of Christ takes precedence over your flesh.

 

You have the mind of Christ. 

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/11/the-mind-of-christ.html

 

 

 

New Life in Christ

  

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.

—John 12:24 (NKJV)

 

Jesus speaks in this Scripture, knowing His time is almost upon Him. His life—given for the world—will produce much grain (fruit) in the lives of those who believe in Him. Just as that one grain must die to produce much grain, Jesus also must die for the miracle of new life to take place. Death is the lie. Newly reborn life in Jesus is the miracle, and it is what is true.

 

How many of us allow a lie to hold us back from the newness of life Jesus has given us? 

 

You might believe one of these lies: 

  

“You will never amount to anything. You will never be good enough. Jesus only loves you as much as you do for Him. Jesus loves someone else more than He loves you. Jesus doesn't have time for your problem. You will always be a failure. You will never have anything. You will be sick forever. If you don't feel emotional about Jesus, He is not real in you.”

 

And the enemy berates you and continually throws your lie in your face.

 

That lie is not God’s truth. When you believe it, it rules your life. Instead of trusting God, you put all your energy into trusting a lie. And without realizing it, that lie becomes an idol. The lie you believe—just like a grain of wheat—must die for you to live in the fullness of the new life Jesus has given you. When the lie you have believed is finally rooted out and God’s truth is planted in its place, then the Holy Spirit has the opportunity to move in your life. 

 

What you go over and over again in your mind is what directs and consumes your life. If it is a lie, then you are in bondage to that lie instead of living in the freedom of God’s truth. When your mind is fixed on God’s truth, you live in the freedom of His peace (Isaiah 26:3).

 

What have you rehearsed over and over in your mind? Perhaps, a condemnation that was hammered into you as a child or something that happened years ago, or a sin that keeps you from understanding God’s love for you. When you don’t believe God’s truth, you have no weapon to destroy the lies the enemy uses.

 

If you want to get to the lie that holds you back, look at what you are going through. The struggles in your life and how you handle them reveal the lies you believe and the truths you need to defeat them. You choose to allow the Holy Spirit to teach you God’s truth (John 14:26, John 16:13).

 

Until you believe what Jesus says about you, you will continually struggle to know who you are and what you have as a new person in Christ. When you allow the Word to transform your mind and defeat the lies that have stolen your freedom, you will know the new person Christ resurrected in you (Romans 12:2).

 

The knowledge of His Truth sets you free (John 8:32). Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the lies you have believed. Allow God to be on the throne of your life and not any lie. 

 

You are new in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). How can you be new and still struggle? Because you are still flesh and deal with your flesh. To overcome your flesh, you have to believe in who Christ says you are. You can’t live by your feelings. Many believers think because they struggle they have lost the righteousness Christ gave them. They believe that must be born again and again and again because they have lost their right-standing in Christ over and over and over. No!

Just because you have accepted Christ in your heart and still struggle doesn’t mean you have lost who you are in Christ. You are sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). You will live in condemnation and defeat until you believe this. When you believe the truth of the new person you are in Christ, you begin to conform to the righteousness that is yours in Christ (Romans 12:2). When you are renewed to believe the truths of your new life in Christ and allow those truths to define your life, the Holy Spirit produces holiness and righteousness in you (Ephesians 4:23-24). You put on the new life Christ has given. You live in the freedom and power of God more than you ever believed possible.

 

“For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10).

 

It is with your heart that you believe you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 10:10, 2 Corinthians 5:21). Know the truths about your new life in Christ. Believe in your heart the righteousness He has secured for you. Confess who He says you are—not the lies that have defined you (Proverbs 18:21). Plant the incorruptible seed of the Word in your heart (1 Peter 1:23). Believe the abundant life that is yours in Christ (John 10:10). You have the power of God to condemn and defeat the lies (Isaiah 54:17). Exercise your faith. 

 

Christ in you is not a mystery (Colossians 1:27). He is not hidden from you. Knowledge of Him is hidden from the world. He has made himself known to you. Know Him. Believe Him in your heart. The enemy cannot steal the new life that is yours in Christ.

 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/11/new-life-in-christ.html

 

 

 

 

Victorious in Christ

 

Those who trust in the Lord are as secure as Mount Zion;

they will not be defeated but will endure forever.

—Psalm 125:1 (NLT)

 

Trust is the ability to rely upon or place confidence in someone. When you trust someone, you rely on the integrity of that person and the security they give. You have faith in them. Those who trust in the Lord, the psalmist proclaims, have confident faith in His security and protection. They know that in trusting God they will not be overcome but will always be victorious.

 

The Old Testament God that Moses encountered on Mount Sinai offered security to the Hebrews if their behavior met His law. Their security in God was conditional on their performance. They staggered in fright when God commanded them not to touch the mountain. Moses himself trembled in fear (Hebrews 12:20). The Law defined what righteous living is. God blessed or cursed them based on their conduct. 

 

On the cross, Jesus changed everything. His grace defined righteous living as not performing according to the law. When someone is reborn in Christ, the righteousness of Christ becomes God’s standard of judgment for that person. Conduct no longer remains God’s standard of judgment. The Law gives sin its power (Corinthians 15:56). God has given us victory over sin in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57). Grace has overcome. Sin is no longer master over us. We are no longer under the Law but now under Grace (Romans 6:14). Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Law no longer is our judge. Christ took our judgment. He took our condemnation and punishment and gave us His righteousness. 

 

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1, NKJV).  

 

God looks upon our hearts and sees the righteousness of His Son in us. We don’t walk according to the flesh. The flesh can never fulfill the requirements of the Law. Jesus has. We walk according to His Spirit who is life and peace (Romans 8:6).

 

"You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people (Hebrews 12:22-24a, NLT). 

 

You have come to Jesus, my friend, who negotiated the New Covenant between God and you. He is Mount Zion—the city of the living God, and He no longer lives outside of you. The Kingdom of God is within you. You have no reason to fear God who became flesh and gave His life for you. His love is no longer conditional on your performance. God revealed His real character in the gift of His Son. He is love. He is grace and truth. Now you run to Him—without shame or dread. He is tangible. He is touchable. He is forgiveness and healing and grace. You are His firstborn. Your name is written in His heaven. You can trust God, your Father, who loved you enough to send His Son to perfectly meet the conditions of His law you never could meet.

 

Do you trust Him? If you trust Him, you are secure in Him. You have peace. You have joy. You believe His truth, and you receive His love. When you understand your relationship with God, you have His faith to believe in the integrity of the security that He has given you. You have confident faith in Him because you know how much He loves you.

 

If you are dealing with trust issues in your relationship with God, you must understand who you are in Him. You are His beloved. You are His child. He is your righteousness—your healer—your provider—your Abba Father. You can draw from the wellspring of His love for you. You can share your heart and leave your burdens in His care. You don't need to fear punishment. Yes, God is the judge over all things, but Jesus has negotiated a New Covenant for you. Jesus took the judgment for your sins on the Cross and received your punishment. God sees you through the finished work of His Son. You are without blemish—forgiven and healed and whole.

 

When you place trust in the Lord, you exercise faith. You believe you are secure in His love, and nothing that comes against you has the power to defeat the powerful loving God who lives in you. You have received from the spiritual riches that Christ redeemed for you Ephesians 1:3-4). Christ, the hope of glory, is in you and you are in Him (Colossians 1:27, John 17:22-23). With your heart you believe Christ has justified you and made you right with God (Romans 10:10). Eternity with God began for you, my friend, the moment your heart believed by faith in Jesus.

 

Those who trust in the Lord are secure in His love. They are not defeated by the struggles of life. They are not defeated by the lies of the enemy. They know who the Word says they are in God’s love, and they are at rest in their identity in Christ. No weapon that comes against them will prosper. Their righteousness is in Jesus (Isaiah 54:17). They are overcomers and absolutely victorious in Him.

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/11/victorious-in-christ.html

 

 

Through Faith

 

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)

 

Our faith is so important to God that without faith it is impossible to please Him. We please God when we believe Him and stand in His Son’s finished work of Grace. 

 

Faith in the finished work of Jesus is the opposite of faith in our own ability to do something that pleases God. Our work tries to appease Him—not please Him. The finished work of Jesus is what satisfies and pleases God. And it is Christ’s work of Grace that favored and saved us with His unconditional love. We can’t save ourselves or win God’s favor. We can’t earn what has already been earned. We are favored by God because of the finished work of Grace. Jesus already took our sins, our sickness, and our pain so that they don’t have to define who we are.

 

Everything good God has for us is provided in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross. Faith doesn’t create anything new. It can’t create healing or deliverance or provision. Faith takes what God has already provided. When we make ourselves the authors and the finishers of our faith, we aren’t going to like the results. Anytime we make receiving from God about ourselves—when we think we have to do something to earn the favor of God—we become disappointed and disillusioned.

 

“Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: ‘Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk’” (Acts 3:11-12, NKJV)?

 

These two Spirit-filled men knew that this miracle was not anything they had done. They knew it was the supernatural power of God that flowed through them that had made a change in this man’s life. From lame to healed, this man was now whole. 

 

“Through faith in the name of Jesus,” Peter said, “this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes” (Acts 3:16).

 

We never receive the promises of God through anyone else’s work or through our own work. We only receive by exercising the measure of faith Christ has given us (Galatians 2:16, Romans 12:3). 

 

Are you tired of having peace one moment and living in fear the next? You will never walk in the peace of God when circumstances or the opinions of others determine your life. These are unfinished and changing and always will be. But the finished work of Jesus on the Cross for you is complete. It is unchanging.

 

In your born-again spirit, you have been made new by the finished work of Christ (John 3:6, 2 Corinthians 5:17)). When you exercise faith to believe what Christ has given you—when you choose to walk by faith in that truth, you take possession of the new life that is yours. You believe in your mind what is yours, and the way you think changes to believe you are new in Christ. 

 

What you believe in your heart determines the course of your life (Proverbs 23:7). When you believe in your heart that Christ’s work on the Cross for you is finished, then you know that there is nothing you have to do to win God’s favor and love. You know you are favored and loved. You live in a new dimension of peace that removes everything you thought necessary to be His. You are unhindered and free to receive His love. 

 

Faith that receives is faith that comes from hearing God’s Word (Romans 10:17). The mind of Christ takes hold, and His Word speaks truth to you (1 Corinthians 2:16). Your beliefs are changed by God’s truth (Romans 12:2). When you seek God with all your heart, you are rewarded (Hebrews 11:6). You know that He is who He says He is in your life.

 

You will trust and be at rest in God when you believe that He has already provided everything good in your life. And when you believe the new person you are in the finished work of Jesus, you don’t struggle to put your faith in Him. You are at rest—at peace—in His perfect love for you. You live who He says you are by faith. 

 

It is only through faith in the finished work of Christ—in the name that is above all names—that you receive what God has already provided in the gift of His life for yours. 

Walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/11/through-faith.html

 

 

Christ In You and You in Him

 

Jesus spoke to His disciples the night before His crucifixion. 

 

“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:19-20, NKJV).

 

Jesus was speaking of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit that assures believers that God is within them. God has given us His Holy Spirit as proof that we are in Him and He in us (1 John 4:13). He has sealed us as His own (Ephesians 1:13).

 

When you come to know Christ, you have the Holy Spirit within you to assure you that Christ is within you. You don’t always feel Him. But you don’t have to feel Him to know He is in you. You know it because the Word says it is true. 

 

When we really believe in our hearts that we are in Christ and He is in us, we live in the freedom of His grace. We experience the fullness of the new life He has given us. Feelings may try to tell us something different. But when doubt and fear try to claim our minds, we defeat them with His power. We believe that greater is Christ within us than anything that comes against us (1 John 4:4).

 

Do you believe this is true? That Christ is greater within you? 

 

We have been crucified with Christ. It is Christ who lives in us. And we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave His life for us (Galatians 2:20). To experience the fullness of the new life that is ours, we have to believe what we have received in Christ. The battle to believe what we have been given is within the mind. We have the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s truth. When we allow the same faith we exercised for salvation to convince us of the new life Christ has given us, we grow to believe we are a new person. All things are new even if they aren’t felt or seen (2 Corinthians 5:17). We stand in faith against doubt—against fear—against the enemy. Christ, the hope of glory, lives within us (Colossians 1:27).

 

“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). 

 

Our beliefs mold us. What we believe becomes who we are. To believe who God says we are, we can’t conform to any belief other than God’s truth. We can’t allow the world or our natural minds to tell us what is true. We conform to the image that God has of us by renewing our minds with the truth of His Word. Only then are we able to agree with what God says about us and experience the plans He has for our lives.

 

God is in you, and you are in Him. Do you believe it? Are you convinced of the new person He has made you—of the image He has of you—of His fruit in your life? 

 

When you believe your identity in Christ, your life produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control. You need no law with the fruit of God's righteousness in your life (Galatians 5:22-24). When you are convinced of your identity in Christ, you draw from the truth of whom He says you are. The self becomes less, and His truth becomes more. The Holy Spirit convinces you of the new person Christ has made you. Christ, the hope of glory, is alive in you (Colossians 1:27).

 

“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them,” Jesus said, “that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one” (John 17:22-23a, NKJV).

 

That day of salvation has come for mankind. Christ has fulfilled the promise of new life. He has been glorified. When you were born again, Christ came to live in you. Jesus has given you the glory God gave Him. When you believe that Christ, the hope of glory, lives in you, you know that only in Him do you live and move and have your being (Acts 17:28).  He is in you, and you are in Him. You are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise—secure and safe in your relationship with Him (Ephesians 1:13).

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/11/christ-in-you-and-you-in-him.html

 

 

Abundant Life in Christ

 

 

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 the abundant life Jesus has for you. 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—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, and 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 God chose us as His own—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. He 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. When we clothe ourselves in our new identity in Jesus’s finished work of grace, we know 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 gifts 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 (Luke 10:19). 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 within 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. The promises of God are yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). God is faithful. He always keeps His promises. 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/11/abundant-life-in-christ.html

 

 

 

An Unveiled Face

 

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

—2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV)

 

 

When you have an unveiled face before the Lord, you live unhindered by anything in His presence. You know who you are in Christ. The Holy Spirit lives in you, and where He is there is freedom (2 Corinthians 2:17). You live without shame and condemnation. You are at peace in your relationship with your Father.

 

When we know who we are in Christ, we reflect His glory. We mirror the gift of His righteousness He has given us. We see the new creation we are in Him. We are changed—from glory to glory—into His likeness. We are transformed from the fading glory of the Law into the eternal glory of New Covenant Grace. We live by faith in Jesus Christ and not by any work trying to prove we are righteous. We know that a man is not justified by anything he does but only by His belief in the finished work of Jesus. No one is made right with God by any anything he does (Galatians 2:15-16).

 

“Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned Moses. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God. Moses knew he was a sinful man (Exodus 3:5-6). 

 

In the glory of the law, no one could see the Lord and live. The wrath of God for man’s failure to live righteously was weighty. Sin separated man from God. Because of sin, a holy God could not remain in man’s presence. When a man failed, God left him.

 

Jesus changed everything! The unveiled glory of the New Covenant is where the Holy Spirit reveals to us who we are in Christ. God sees us as the righteousness of His Son. When we know Christ, we are no longer under the fading glory of the law. We are forever under the glory of God’s Grace. God no longer leaves us when we sin. He lovingly brings us to repentance. When we sin, we are the ones who turn from Him. Falling from grace is not falling back into sin. It is seeking right standing with God by how well you keep the law (Galatians 5:4).

 

Believing you are blameless in Christ transforms you until your actions and reactions are born of the righteousness Christ has given you. When you see yourself in the glory of the New Covenant, you do not have to hide your face from God. The more you see Him, the more alive you are. In this glory, you have His unconditional love and approval. In this New Covenant glory, God never leaves you. He is always with you. The glory of the New Covenant is Christ’s grace. It is your freedom from sin’s separation from God. You are free to run to your loving Abba Father.

 

Absolutely nothing separates you from Him. When you look into His face, you know you have been transformed from the perishable glory of your own self-righteousness into the unveiled and imperishable glory of the righteousness Jesus died to give you. You no longer need to strive to win God’s approval. Jesus approved you at the Cross. You live in the freedom of His Grace.

 

“Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace” (Romans 6:14, NLT).

 

“For when I tried to keep the law,” Paul wrote, “it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:19-20, NLT).

 

Quit working to win the approval and acceptance that Jesus has already won for you. Your old self and that condemnation of the law have been crucified with Christ. You are fully forgiven, known, and accepted. It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives within you. With an unveiled face, you reflect the glory that is His. You are changed from the fading glory of the old covenant into the revealed glory of the New. 

 

And when you know this—and really believe this in your heart—you are free. Nothing separates you from Him. Unveiled and unhindered you come boldly into His presence in your time of need (Hebrews 4:16). 

 

© 2022 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2022/11/an-unveiled-face.html