Neil Anderson’s devotional for December 2 is interesting and
took me back to the old days. I can also see how anyone who knows God can take this devotional
and develop it into an essay because there are many fascinating points one can
make, but, I will keep it short today.
He is right when he said in the second paragraph that we do
not have an identity problem, but a walk problem. Although we need to KNOW our
identity in Him, to claim it and live it out as we live IN HIM, but, often
times our problem is not one of identity in Christ but of a walk problem. When
God was teaching me how to walk in the spirit, my leaders kept telling me that all
Christians at the moment of Salvation, walk in the Spirit. God taught me that
is a lie, one that is poisoning the Church. It is a lack of knowing God
personally and a lack of Spiritual insight. Think about it, if indeed we walk in Spirit
automatically at the moment of Salvation, then we are saying, the mess that has
become Christianity is the Holy Spirit’s fault. Furthermore, In Galatians 5:16
Paul gave a command to the Galatians to walk in the Spirit. Because I have been
taught the steps that I took in between to learn to walk IN HIM as I found my identity
in Him, I can see more through Neil Anderson today’s Devotional. Underneath it
all, what he is not spelling out for us is that there is a span of time in
between the walk in spirit to claiming our identity in Him and take a stand on
it and never let go.
Please understand
that I am not criticizing Neil’s devotion. I am just deciphering what I know he
is saying in between.
The up and down spiritual existence Neil talks about in the
first paragraph are something that I lived the first five to six years of my Christian
walk, and I knew through His grace, there was something wrong with it. When I
complained, the Spirit of God told me to surrender. Then, a few months after I
surrender, I was about seven years in the Christian life, all hell broke loose
and my life has never been the same again as God turned it Topsy turvy. My
point here is that, an up and down spiritual existence is not what we are
called to live as Christian.
Yes, it is true, we become saints at the moment of
Salvation, but, as we walk the walk we find that our sainthood is like an
embryo germinating in the mother’s womb slowly to become a full formed fetus. I
do not want to use a different example, because that is the one God used, to
show me, most of the time, how He is working out our Salvation through us. So, the point here is that if we do not walk
in the Spirit to go forward knowing the victorious life where we stop having an
up and down spiritual existence, we are like embryo between the first stages of
a pregnancy, complete, but not developed.
Here is something to ponder…. What happen when an embryo remains
at the same stage of an embryo and never developed throughout the pregnancy
terms?
HERE IS NEIL ANDERSON'S DEVOTIONAL FOR DECEMBER 2
December 2
We Are Saints
Romans 1:7
To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Have you ever heard a Christian refer to himself as "just a sinner saved by grace"? Have you referred to yourself that way? What do sinners do? They sin! If you are no different from a non-Christian, or even if you perceive yourself as no different, what will happen? Your Christian life will be mediocre at best, with little to distinguish you from a non-Christian. Satan will seize that opportunity, pour on the guilt, and convince you that you are doomed to an up-and-down spiritual existence. As a defeated Christian you will confess your sin and strive to do better, but inwardly you will admit that you are just a sinner saved by grace, hanging on until the rapture.
In Scripture, believers are called "brethren," "sons of God," "sons of light," and "saints." You are not a sinner; you are a saint who sins. "For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8). According to that passage, we don't have an identity problem; we have a walk problem.
We become saints at the moment of salvation and live as saints in our daily experience as we continue to believe what God has done and as we continue to affirm who we really are in Christ. If you fail to see yourself as a child of God, you will struggle vainly to live like one, and Satan will have little trouble convincing you that you are no different from who you were before Christ and that you have no value to God or anyone else. But appropriating by faith the radical transformation of your core identity from sinner to saint will have a powerful, positive effect on your daily resistance to sin and Satan.
Prayer:
Lord, open my eyes that I may see myself as You see me. Then enable me to walk as a child of light.
COURTESY OF: http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/dailyinchrist/
