In Christ

ESTABLISHED IN GOD

St. John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

The Body of Christ is still stumbling with the thought of Jesus being the only way to God. Many have tried to get to God their own way, but contrary to popular belief, there is no other way. Trying to go our own way, time and time again, we have fallen away from the path of God. This is simply due to our unbelief, which has led us into sin. By walking in unbelief, we have come into agreement with God’s enemy; the devil, and his statement that “We will never be perfect, as long as we are in this body”, but this is a lie. We can be perfect in Christ by being established in Him.

Before we go any further, let us define established. Established: 1: to institute as law by agreement 2: to make firm or stable 3: Prove (From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

We have come to understand that establishment goes beyond being called of God. It is a spiritual footing where we are no longer wavering; walking after the Spirit one day and after the flesh another. When we are established, we are at a place where we are unmovable in God. God can trust us because we have purposed in our hearts to give totally over to Him, that we are indeed bought with a price and our lives are not our own. Inside of this purpose our desire is to walk in Him always and not just for a moment.

A good parallel to being established in God is on our jobs. Say for instance we are on a job for just a few months and have not yet built up a track record of being a hard worker. The boss would not readily leave us alone and expect for us to do the work. But once we have worked for some time and have built up the reputation of a hard worker, and always completing our job at the standard expected, then our boss would have no problem leaving us, or even asking us to oversee the other workers. The same is true in God. The Word can come and prick our hearts and we will move for the moment, be very dutiful, come to all the meetings, dance in Portraits, sing on the Praise and Worship team but trials are what come to prove whether our decision is complete, unmovable and real. There is no establishing in God without walking in the Spirit.

COMING TO CHRIST

We have to judge now; do we just have the knowledge of God, but no stability? God is not looking at what and how much we preach but He is looking at whose heart has agreed to walk in the Spirit. Our natural duties in the church are not what will establish us. The only thing that will guarantee stability is agreeing to walk in the Spirit.

Walking in the Spirit is simply agreeing with the whole life of Christ. We know this and can easily say it out of our mouths but do we truly believe it? How we come to Christ shows whether or not we do. We try to come into Christ with all our baggage (lust, pride, image, etc…). We believe that if we go to church long enough the issues will eventually go away. THIS IS NOT SO. We have to make a conscious decision that we are going to let those things go. That is the power of the gospel. If we say we cannot let them go; or that we have to go through a process, we are calling God a liar. In essence, we are saying that God has no power and the blood of Jesus was of no effect.

The things we choose to hold in our hearts are what eternally separates us from God and prevents us from ever being established. We will try to minister with all of that mess in our hearts but after a while God will allow our true location to show if we refuse to deal with it. For example, a young lady dealing with lust, might acknowledge it, but refuses to deal. She continues to minister and go on with her natural duties falling in and out of fornication. God will continue to give her every opportunity to come clean. But if she refuses to deal, God is now forced to allow situations to reveal her true spiritual location. God will allow her to become pregnant so that all can see that was not His standard. We must see this as the love of our Father. He loves us so much He will put us through suffering to bring us back into righteousness.

FAILURE IS NEVER THE STANDARD

God will not allow us to continue to make mockery of His name and let the death of Jesus Christ go in vain. If it were not possible for us to live holy, why did Jesus have to die? We cannot pick and choose what we will hate about us; we have to hate everything that is not of Christ in order to move totally in Christ.

But what is hate? Hate: 1: intense hostility, 2: extreme dislike(From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

We have to come in total agreement with God to a point where we know that God is pleased with us. The fruit of the Spirit is the product of a life that has agreed with God. The life that Jesus has given us is from God and people want to see proof of that life. WE HAVE TO BE DIFFERENT FROM THE WORLD. Even though we may be going through similar situations, we have to go through them as Sons so those in the world can see Christ through us.

Galatians 5:22-25

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

BEING ROOTED IN GOD

If we find ourselves constantly looking over our shoulder and always expecting to fall, this shows that we have not truly made a decision in our heart to give totally over to God. We have to begin to hate those things that we see in us that are of this flesh, and the struggle it causes for us to get back in the Spirit. Once we have been exposed to the Spirit, then we can recognize what it is and what it is not. Once we have attained the Spirit, we have to really look at ourselves and see if there is anything that we want more than this life. We have to be willing to forsake everything we ever wanted in life and to pick up the life of Christ. “We must embrace the mindset that in order to take on the fullness of Christ, it requires total relinquishment and abandonment of self, our wants, desires and agendas.” (Journey to the Spirit: The Fullness of Christ S.O.P. 2004).

The simple fact that we can see Christ means that He is not so far away that we cannot reach Him. If we can see Him, we can be Him. Once we compare ourselves to Christ then we have set the standard for our lives. We can look at the whole picture of what we are and deny what we see that does not conform to the standard. This is true self denial. Denial is not on a situation-by-situation basis. Our knowledge of God does not guarantee that we will do the righteous thing. When we walk after the flesh, we cannot say what we will and will not do. There is no completeness outside of Christ. All we have to do is to hear Christ and obey. In one moment we can change from a creature walking in darkness and death, to a Son walking in the life and light. We have to abide in Christ with thanksgiving for what God has done. If we just allow God to engulf us, then and only then can we have confidence in walking in the Spirit. We have to give God our whole life. That is true worship. When we worship God how He wants us to then we will find ourselves rooted and built up in Him. Rooted: 1: fixed in place, 2: set in, 3: unmovable, 4: stabilized(From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

Colossians 2:6-7

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

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

Christ is the judge in all situations. While Jesus walked this earth for thirty-three and one half years, He remained holy. There is no instance where He sinned, from His birth until His death. He walked on the same earth that we do now, and endured all that we could ever imagine and more. Jesus was just a man walking in the Spirit of Christ, just as we are able to do. Now if Jesus could live totally spotless and never waiver in His faith, what is our excuse? If one man can choose to walk holy, and actually do it, then the rest of us are condemned.

Romans 8:3

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Jesus was the pioneer. He had no roadmaps to follow, all He had was His belief. We have all the same things He did, and now we have a life to pattern ourselves after. No need to reinvent the wheel. Yet we still choose to walk in unrighteousness. This is why we are judged, because Jesus did it, and we are all condemned if we choose not to. Condemned: a: to convict, sentence or doom, b: to judge unfit for use or consumption c: to declare wrong or evil usually after weighing evidence and without reservation (From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

We have to stay in Christ because He is the only one who was able to stay totally pure. In order to get in Christ and to stay in Christ, we have to deny ourselves of what the flesh wants. We put on Christ and begin to deny even how we feel, and take on the emotions of Christ. Deny: 1: to declare untrue, 2: to disclaim connection with or responsibility for, 3: to refuse to grant, 4: to restrain oneself from fulfilment of desires(From Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

If we cannot deny ourselves of the things in the world now, what will we do when our lives are on the line? Our ability to deny ourselves in the flesh is what separates churchgoers and those who are established in God. We have to honor the Son in our lives before the point of death comes. If we do not stand now, we will not be able to stand then.

STAYING POWER

You may hear all of this and think, easier said than done, but all we really need to know is the how-to. We may say to ourselves, I see where I need to be, but how exactly do I get there and stay there? Well it is simple; all we have to do is to keep our eyes on Christ. Remember the story of Peter walking on the water? As long as he kept his eyes on Christ, he stayed afloat. He was able to walk above the waves that swarmed around him, something man deemed impossible. But the moment he lost sight of Christ and began to really think about what he was doing, and how “crazy” things seemed to be, he immediately began to sink and had to once again call on Jesus to save him. Everything is the same in our lives. Our waves are the circumstances, situations and relationships that we are exposed to that are designed to test our faith in God. Our focus is still the same as Peter’s and just as he did, if we lose sight of God, we will begin to drown in the cares of this world and lose track of our true purpose in this life. Just like the other disciples watched from the safety of the boat and marvelled at what Peter had done, we, too, as sons of God have spectators. Those who are around us may see the trials that we endure everyday and marvel. Because they are natural creatures they cannot understand why anyone would put themselves in a place to suffer. But as sons, we were called to suffer, to deny the flesh.

Suffering is what roots a son. If we never suffer we will never experience the power of God. A very good example of a minister being rooted by suffering is our very own Apostle Mary Banks. At the beginning of this ministry she had to suffer the ridicule of those who were supposed to be her strength: the Body of Christ. She lost every earthly possession she ever had, and was even labelled a fanatic. Nevertheless, she kept her belief in what God had said. At times it looked as though the ministry was going under but she never doubted. She learned how to trust God by simply keeping her eyes on what the end was said to be, and thank God she did. All of our lives have been touched by her ministry. Her faith and belief in God have brought her to a place where she has no reason to ever doubt Him. She is established in Him. We can say, “Oh well, that is Dr. Banks, she has a special relationship with God,” and indeed she does, but that is attainable by all of us. There is nowhere in the Bible that says that only a certain kind of person is chosen to be in fellowship with God. He desires that we all be in fellowship with Him in Spirit and in Truth. Even Dr. Banks had to learn Christ, but the difference between us is that she made herself available to the route that God set out for her.

If we ever open ourselves to God and allow Him to cleanse our hearts and keep them clean, there is a place that we can go in Him where we can eternally live without sin. That is where we are established in God, rooted in purpose. As sons, that is the ultimate. Let us be honest with ourselves. Those who have the Holy Ghost need to ask themselves if they have ever sinned not knowing it was sin. I have not. I know every sin that I committed after I was saved. I made a conscious decision to forgo all that I knew of God and sin, therefore we can decide the opposite, to remain in His Holiness.

WALKING IN SONSHIP

Once we are there, then we can really make an affect on the world. When the world sees the sons beginning to walk in who they are, they will see hope and begin to gravitate to it. We will walk in the fullness of who we are and will be in the center of God’s will. Young people, this is the place where we all need to get to. There is no more time for us to stay bound with the condemnation of our past. The devil would love to keep our heads hung low; always depressed from not pleasing God, but the devil is a liar. WE WILL WALK IN THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST. We will live sinless and show the world that Christ is alive and well and we can start from this moment on! There is no need for fanfare, but God wants us to be sober in our hearts and move from now on. We have to keep our eyes on the end result and forget what we were yesterday. God is ready to move and He will not wait for those who choose to be left behind. We have to jump on board. I hope that everyone grabs a hold to what God is saying. This army in on the move and we have to ask ourselves, are we moving with it, or will we stay behind and just marvel at what God is about to do?

I pray that everyone decides to come on board!

Be encouraged. Love you all, Apostle Michael Thomas