In the Old Testament God told Moses that His name was “I AM.” God never changes, and in the New Covenant I AM now lives in us, reminding us: “I AM what you need me to be, I AM your comfort, I AM forgiving, I AM mindful of you, I AM your healer, I AM loving, I AM a deliverer, I AM a giver, I AM a friend!”
In many areas of life you can slip back into old patterns that you had previously freed yourself from. You wake up one day and realize you are back in the rut of doing what you were stuck in 10 or 20 years ago! This can also happen in your thinking, which ends up limiting the power of God actively working in your life. It happens when you start reading the Bible more as a history book than as a living letter to you, to be applied and acted on every day. Remember, back then it was the ministry of Jesus in a Jew. BUT NOW, it’s not just history, it has become the ministry of Jesus carried out through you!
As you negotiate through the traffic and the bustle of stores, and thrill in the beautifully decorated scenery around you, remember that on that night an angel stood in the heavens declaring the reason for our celebrations. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord…” (Luke 2:11). Merry Christmas! What a precious and amazing gift God has given to us!
When you really get it that Jesus paid the entire price for sin, you’ll understand that you’re no longer under the devil’s tyranny and oppression. Know this as confidently as you know your name—the devil has NO power over you anymore, in any area, because Jesus took your sin and permanently gave you HIS righteousness!
Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Our sins for His righteousness. Our fear for His love. Our sickness for His health. Our unbelief for His faith. Our life for His LIFE. “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).
We declare salvation as a free gift, but it wasn’t really free. It came at a great price and cost God His best! His Son Jesus paid that price and it was NOT cheap. When you understand the magnitude of that price, it should forever settle the question of your value to God!
Jesus took off His equality with God, so He could put on human flesh and walk on this earth demonstrating to us what God looked like in human flesh. He had no sin nature, so the devil had no ability to put anything on Him or do anything to Him until it was time for the cross. There, He took YOUR sin nature, and all the judgements that were against you because of it, and gave you His LIFE in exchange! Now you are cleansed, with the nature of Christ in you, and the devil has no more right to touch you than he did Jesus! This is how we walk in the earth as He did, and can do the works He said we can do! “… as he is so also are we in this world” 1 John 4:17.
The only way we can build our expectations upon something other than personal experiences is through exposing our hearts and minds to the “great and precious promises” of God, and believing them to be ours! (2 Peter 1:4)
Sickness, disease and all types of infirmity are rebellious to the truth that your body is the temple of God. But those infirmities can be dealt with, because there is an authority higher than they are—the name of Jesus! Sickness is an enemy every bit as much as the devil is, and as a Christ-filled believer who is one spirit with Him, you have the absolute authority to not just cast it out, but to live in divine health!
When we submit to God’s Word and continue to claim it as who we are, no matter how messed up we may be in the now, we are allowing GOD to work His Word out in us, activating the power in it to renew our minds and transform our thinking. Then what? We begin to live, move and have our being in the real, transformed, Kingdom-life Jesus has given to us!