Split Personality

When we come to Christ, our spirit which was dead in sin, comes alive (Ephesians 2:5). We are Born Again and everything in us is made new (John 3:1-21; 2 Corinthians 5:17). The manifestation of this change takes years.

God convicts us in areas which are negatively affecting our witness for Him. We cannot judge others. We may think someone smokes too much; but God is more interested in deeper issues, which we cannot see.

In the beginning, we are partially surrendered to Christ. We hold back whole rooms in our soul, where we do not want God to go. We slam the doors shut and sometimes even lock them.

This is why we appear to our self and other people as a split personality. Part of us is sanctified and part of us is carnal and still caught in the web of sin.

The longer we walk with the Lord, the more willing we are to surrender more of our secret self to Him. We unlock some doors, but we protectively keep some of them closed or partially open.

We are not willing to live in total transparency before the Lord and our fellow Christians. However, with time, we learn to trust God's kindness and mercy. We depend upon His grace above all else.

We come to live a surrendered life when we understand that it is not I, but Christ living in and through us (Galatians 2:20). Christ is our whole life and we want nothing else (Colossians 3:4).

Total surrender to Christ produces fruit in us from the Vine (John 15:5). We develop the habit of walking in stride with God's Spirit (Galatians 5:15-25). We learn to think and speak by the Spirit too, reaping God's rewards (1 Corinthians 2:13).

Prayer:

Father God, Your Spirit transforms us from a split personality into a totally new creation. We no longer desire carnality, but want only that which is spiritual in our life. We come to know Christ intimately and the power, strength and truth of His resurrection (Philippians 3:10). We grasp all that Christ provides for us (Philippians 3:12).

Thank You for transforming us into the likeness of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). Help us to live a life of whole-hearted devotion and worship to You in holiness and with eternal goals, priorities and values. We rely on You to walk with us through the perils of this life and to make us victors in all things (Romans 8:37).

Thought for the Day:

We bring glory to Jesus when we live in the fullness of His atonement and the redemption of His sacrifice, which He shared with us by His resurrection from the dead and ascension into Heaven. - 1 Peter 1:3-4

Personal Identity

 

 

When we seek our personal identity from our mate, family, job or material possessions, we can lose it overnight. Then we are adrift without an anchor to stabilize our life. We may look to our character, talents and independence for our identity until we are accused, or even falsely accused of a crime and put in jail or dismissed from our job. However, if we draw our personal identity from Christ in us, we find a solid rock on which it can stand for eternity, regardless of our circumstances in life.

Paul related his struggle with his personal identity in Romans 7; and at the very last verse, he realizes that God freed him from sin, as well as the condemnation of sin (Romans 8:1). He comprehended the fact that the law of sin and death no longer has any power over the Saints of God, because we are set free by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2). Our sinful self died in Christ, and we are raised to walk in His new life (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Christ is our whole life (Colossians 3:4). Jesus did only those things, which He saw our Father do (John 5:19). We have no separate identity apart from the Father either. We live only to please and bring honor to our Lord. His life flows through us and we bear much fruit (John 15:5). We grow in the knowledge of God, and He fills us with endurance and patience, as we joyfully thank Him for His love for us, for His blessings in our life and for replacing our identity with His (Colossians 1:10-12).

We wait on God to give us His thoughts, living from our spirit instead of from our human soul – our mind, will and emotions. We refrain from listening to our human thoughts, so that our words and thoughts come only from Christ within us. We desire God with our whole heart, seeking only His will for our life, and using the gifts, which He provides for us, as He opens doors that no man can close.

Prayer:

Father God, we relinquish our dependence on our self and we rely totally on You. We hunger and thirst after Your righteousness (Matthew 5:6). We thank You for increasing our faith and for helping us to live for Your glory. We totally surrender our life to You, and we thank You for Your spiritual wisdom and understanding (Ephesians 1:17). We succeed in life only through the power of Your might (Ephesians 6:10), not by our human reasoning and efforts. Regardless of the circumstances in our life, our personal identity comes from our relationship with You.

Thought for the Day:

We wait on the Lord until Christ is fully developed in us as our personal identity. – Galatians 4:19

Assume the Position

God made sure to provide us with many Biblical examples to follow. Jesus came down from heaven, not to do His own will or to seek His own glory, but to follow only our Father’s will for His life (John 6:38; 8:50). He did not do or speak anything by His own effort, but only as our Father instructed Him (John 8:28-29). He willingly laid down His human will and lived to please our Father. God wants us to adopt the same mindset as Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:1-11). He laid down His glory and came to serve at our Father’s pleasure, even to the point of death (Philippians 2:5-8).

Another instance is our dear brother, Job. He lost every one and every thing that was dear to his heart. He ended up in an ash heap with boils and ill health, but he would not curse the Lord and die (Job 2:9). In His graciousness, God gave Job abundantly more than he ever had before his trials began (Job 42:10). Just like Jesus, Job reaped the blessings of God in return for submission to God’s will, and so will we (Philippians 2:9).

Stephen, a man full of God’s grace, wisdom and power performed many signs and wonders during his service to God (Acts 6:8,10). During his trial, his face shone like an angel with the peace of God (Acts 6:15). Even while threatened with death, Stephen preached his finest sermon. As he kept his focus on Jesus, the heavens opened up before Him and He viewed the scene in Heaven as he slipped from his earthly existence into eternity (Acts 7:1-60).

Paul lived his life dedicated to the Jewish religion, rising to the top with his self-efforts. He persecuted the followers of Christ with a vengeance. Then, he encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and formed a union that gave him courage to face future deprivation and persecution with joy (Acts 9:4; Philippians 4:4). He surrendered everything to gain a deeper walk with Christ (Philippians 3:8). James must have had this same experience, because He advised us to count it all joy when we experience negative circumstances in our life (James 1:2).

Life is not about you! It is not about me either. Life is all about the will of our compassionate Father for each of us. In our stubborn, self-centered efforts to live our life, God allows us to go our own way, waiting patiently for us to exhaust our resources and fail in devastation. This is when, like Stephen, we finally look up from our pit of doom into His glorious face. Once we completely surrender to Christ in us, God shows us great and mighty things (Jeremiah 33:3) and fills us with His peace and joy (Romans 15:13).

We are all called us to assume the position of a helpless child, living in the nurture and with the direction of our benevolent Father (Matthew 18:3). Pursuing our earthly dreams and goals will never bring us true happiness. A surrendered life brings contentment to the inner core of our soul and to the depths of our heart, regardless of the circumstances in our life (1 Timothy 6:6, 8; 2 Corinthians 4:17). As we follow the will of God moment by moment throughout our day, He fills us with His peace and His Spirit until we glow with the face of an angel like Stephen, we enjoy material blessings like Job, we have an effective ministry like Paul and we live in the anointing of Jesus.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, You lived a surrendered life to the will of our Father, giving us Your example to follow. Help us to shed the burdens of this world and to walk in Your freedom now and in eternity. Use us as instruments to shed Your peace abroad in the earth as we share Your gospel with those humble enough to receive You into their hearts.

Thought for the Day:

Constant denial of God’s call on our life will harden our heart and cause us to walk away from His Truth.

 

Thank you, Michael D. Perkins, for the use of your photo.