We are a new creation. Our old nature is dead and we walk in newness of life. The Father has given us permission to consider ourselves to be dead in Christ and now therefore alive to God. That means that we can have no thought that emanates from the old life. If we are a new person in Jesus then we need a new way of thinking. Transformation comes from the renewing of the mind.
At the heart of all growth is an expedited way of thinking that frees us from creating obstacles to our own progress. It is impossible to grow in faith unless we are being challenged in some way. Challenge is therefore one of the keys to growth and change. However because we are new creations and are now a part of Gods household, we can only be challenged from the place that we belong.
We are in the world but not of it. Our spirituality is drawn from another dimension. We are seated in Christ in heavenly places which means we can only draw our perceptions from the place that Jesus occupies within our lives. As He is, so are we in this world. He prayed that life would be lived from this truth: “on earth as it is in heaven”.
We can never be challenged by a negative since that part of us that was subject to negativity died on the cross with Jesus. We are now in Christ and therefore vulnerable to His perception and are more open than we realize to His mindset. We are now being stimulated by the environment that God is creating within. We see, think, and speak from a truly wholesome place of favor and blessing. Our lives are not being challenged by our circumstances. After all, if we are in Christ then so are all our situations. We do not allow our spirituality to be interrogated by the difficulties we face. Instead we confront our circumstances with the mind of Christ.
This is our heritage in Jesus. This is where we share His inheritance as a joint heir. There is no point being an heir of God if our circumstances do not inherit what belongs to Christ in us. Life in the Spirit therefore is about changing our vocabulary from the talk of problems to the language of promise. I wrote a book called The Language of Promise because I wanted people to see that our real treasure is Jesus within. We are learning to speak from our own internal place of Presence into the outer world of our circumstance.
Walking with God is about the ‘stance’ we take in our circumstance. Do we use the problem related language of the world around us, or the promise connected language of heaven that arises joyfully from within our own rejoicing? We give thanks because we see differently in Jesus. We rejoice because we are joint heirs with Him. He has no problems, only possibilities. As He is so are we in this world.
There is an attitude of heart to be gained here. We first establish our identity in Christ, then we use that to develop the required way of thinking. Identity precedes mindset change. A change in thinking provokes a new language to emerge. Answer the question of who you are in Jesus. Your identity compels you to start from your biggest place of influence. Think on those things and we’ll talk further.
Changing our story is the best thing God does.
