In-Christ Realities

Recently I was very privileged to be invited by a dear and wonderful brother and son Nathaniel Obi to minister in his programme - Grace Seminar 3.0 tagged "The Gospel of Christ". Below is the basic content of the message I shared with them. Have a Blessed time reading!

 Introduction

“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

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

2Cor.5:16-17

This message is in two major parts. The first part is focused on the phrase “IN CHRIST” and the second part is focused on the word “REALITIES”.

I earnestly pray that this revelation causes a stirring of the life and power of Christ in you.

 

PART I – IN CHRIST

TYPES OF PEOPLE ON EARTH

There are two types of people on earth:

1. People who are in Adam. 

2. People who are in Christ. 

There’s a very BIG Difference between these two sets of people. The difference is as much as the difference between Christ and Adam. It is very vital that we understand what it means to be in Christ and how exactly we got into Christ.

When you believed the Gospel of Christ, God put you into Christ by His Spirit, 1Cor.12:13.

Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord after hearing and believing the Gospel gets saved, Romans 10:9-15.

The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, Rom.1:16.

2 Thessalonians 2:14 speaks about how we are called by the Gospel to obtain the glory of Christ. 

    WHAT THE GOSPEL IS

Now let’s talk a little bit about what the Gospel is.

The Gospel is not about what God will do. The Gospel is about what God has done ….through Christ. Specifically, the Gospel is about what God has done through the suffering and death of Christ; or we can also through say Christ's works.

Jesus didn’t come down to this earth to suffer and die because he felt like doing some bodily exercise. All He came to do was for you and me. He sacrificed all of His glory in Heaven to become a man and He eventually submitted Himself to a very painful and shameful suffering and death.

I would like to show you 8 Things Christ has done for you. You now have these 8 things because of all Christ went through for you:

1. All your sins are forgiven (past, present and future), John 1:29, Eph.1:7.

2. You now have a New Nature, 2Cor.5:17, Eph.2:10 (AMP).

3. Your sicknesses and diseases are healed, 1Pet.2:24. 

4. The Devil’s power over your life has been destroyed, Heb.2:14. 

5. You are now Blessed and every curse in your life has been removed, Gal.3:13-14, Eph.1:3.

6. Everything you need has been provided for you, Rom.8:31-32, 2Pet.1:3.

7. You are now a Citizen of Heaven and an Ambassador of Christ, Eph.2:6, 2Cor.5:20.

8. You are Anointed and Empowered for exploits just like Jesus is, John 14:12.

Hallelujah!!!

There are so much more but we shall just make do with these few for now.

Like we saw earlier, the Gospel is about what God has done for you through Christ’s sufferings and death for you.

When you believe the Gospel, you experience the life, power and blessings of it. All that Christ has done for you becomes your reality and eventually becomes your experience.

Now, still talking about the fact that the Gospel is about what God has done for you through Christ, Ephesians 2:1-10 shows us that it was long ago that God quickened us or made us alive in Christ.

It was while we were yet sinners that God loved us and sent Jesus to die for us to reconcile us to Himself, Rom.5:8-10.

1Peter 1:3 says:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”

God gave birth or life to you when Christ died and rose again for you. When you believe the Gospel you now receive and experience this birth and life into you and you become God’s child indeed.

See what John 1:1 & 12-13 says:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

But as many as received him (The Word/ Gospel), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

By believing the Gospel, your family lineage changes. You become a member of God’s family. The you that now exists is no more just the one your parents decided to bring into the world. The you that now exists is the one God has given birth to.

Believing the Gospel makes you Accept God's Fatherhood over your life. 

Let me give you this illustration. Do you agree that immediately after you were born, you did not know who you parents were? But after a while as you grew, you knew exactly who they were and you accepted their parenthood, family name and everything that came along with it.

If for example after you were born and started growing up, you didn’t know or have any parents, then someone like Bill Gates or Dangote comes and shows you your birth certificate, DNA test and other documents to prove that he is your father, what will happen to you? Almost everything about your life would immediately change; except you refuse to believe that it is true. Though you had always been his child, it was the moment you knew and believed it that you fully became his child.

Now, much more than Bill Gates or Dangote, God is now your Father. How does that make you feel? Knowing God is bigger and in every way better and beyond comparison with Bill Gates or any other man.

By believing the Gospel you now have a new son name (identity). You need to fully accept this new identity that you have because of all that God has done for you through Christ.  

KEEP BELIEVING THE GOSPEL!

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Colossians 2:6-7

I would like to ask you a question. How did you receive Christ? By believing the Gospel right? This verse we just read says it is as you received Him that you have to keep walking in Him.

You must keep receiving, believing and declaring your realities in Christ over your life.

Abraham heard the Gospel of Christ and it affected his life.

His identity changed and he started seeing himself and calling himself what God was calling him.

Galatians 3:8-9 says:

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

As Abraham kept calling himself what God was calling Him, it became his reality.

Believing the Gospel is your key to growing in Christ and enjoying your INHERITANCE (realities) in Christ! 

 

 PART II - REALITIES

YOUR GREATEST REALITY

Like the example I gave you earlier about what happens when you realize who your father is, I am sure you will agree with me that knowing the family you belong to affects your realities instantly. By being a member of God’s family your realities change instantly.

The greatest of these realities is that you are just like Christ.

Please look at these scriptures with me:

“Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world”.

1John 4:17

“He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

1John 5:10-11,

The same life that is in Christ is in us. Do you know what God’s greatest desire is for us? It is in Romans 8:29:

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

God’s greatest desire, is that we would conform or come to the same form as Christ His Son and be just like Christ in every way.

 

HOW TO EXPERIENCE YOUR REALITIES IN CHRIST:

A. You have to grow spiritually. I have a little daughter right now who will soon be four years old. She is just like me but there are so many things I can do that she cannot do because she still needs to grow up. She cannot think of driving a car for example because she would not even see the road if she seats on the driver’s seat of a car.

You are just like Christ in your spirit, but you need to grow up in Him to be more like Him in your form and your function.

Three vital Keys to Spiritual Growth are:

1. The revelation of Christ, Acts 20:32, 2Cor.3:18

2. Prayer: (a) praying based on the revelation of Christ {Eph.1:15-21} and (b) praying in tongues, 1Cor.14:4, Jude 1:20.  

3. Fellowshipping with other believers, Eph.4:15-16.

Now, you must know that flesh and blood cannot reveal Christ to you, Matt.16:13-19. The natural man cannot discern the things of the Spirit because they are spiritually discerned, 1Cor.2:14.

You need the Spirit of God to reveal Christ to you.

This is why Paul prayed for the spirit of wisdom and revelation upon believers, Eph.1:17.

You need to stop seeing yourself based on who you are in the flesh. That is what you have, how you look, who your parents are, the things you have achieved, e.t.c., 2Cor.5:16.

See yourself by who you are in Christ. See yourself just like Christ.

Christ is your first and real environment.

Philippians 1:1 says “Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi…” 

The saints were in Christ but at Philippi. We are also in Christ and at our respective locations. So no matter the physical environments we are at, it is the spiritual environment we are in - which is Christ; that determines our real experience or realities. 

Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our Faith, Heb.12:2. As the Author of our Faith He gave us His Life at the beginning of our relationship with Him and as the Finisher of our Faith, He will make us completely like Him at the end of our journey on this earth, 1John 3:2.  

B. Keep your faith absolutely in Christ.  Everything God does for you, He does it because of Christ. As you grow spiritually don’t start putting your faith in your works. By doing that you will cut yourself out of the realities you have in Christ.

According to Galatians 3:5, it is our faith in the gospel of Christ that activates the miraculous power of God and not our obeying the law.

C. Understand your oneness with Christ, 1Cor.6:17.

We are ONE with Christ. He is the Head we are the Body, Eph.5:30, Eph.1:22-23. The more you realize that you are one with Christ, the more His realities will be your realities also.

D. Let the revelation of Christ dwell in you richly, Col.3:16. As the revelation of Christ fills you, you will begin to see and understand the various dimensions of your realities in Him. Things like who we are in Him, by Him, through Him and with Him.

Who we are because of Him, What we have because of Him, What we can do because of Him 

Where we are because of Him.

I will like to end this message by sharing something with you from 2Corinthians 4:5-7:

“For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

An earthen vessel is a container made out of an earth substance like clay. Now I’m sure you would agree with me that people do not usually put a lot of valuables inside a clay pot. As a result of this, you may see a clay pot somewhere and you may not want to bother yourself to even find out what is in it. But if somehow, you go close to it and peep into it and you end up finding billions of dollars of jewelry and precious materials how would you feel? Amazed, right? In that situation, you just experienced a treasure in earthen vessel.

Now, the passage we just read shows us that when we meditate on the gospel of Christ, it makes our lives like treasure in earthen vessels. On the outside, we would not in any way look like the type of wonderful and glorious things that we are doing or that are coming out of our lives. The excellency of the power would certainly be of God. People will begin to say this must be God.   

The revelation of Christ will cause us to walk in divine realities that will amaze our world and attract men and women to the saving grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

God Bless you!