One Thing 9/6/17

2Cor. 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Col. 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him — 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.

 

The idea of newness, or renewal, is used several times in these verses. Renewal is a term often associated with the idea of revival, and I believe that real revival is when a person who has become a New Creation, a New Self, starts living like the New Creation He or she has already become. Our spiritual new birth, which is what makes us new selves, is a result of our being placed into Christ. Being in Christ is to also have Christ in us. It is a mutual indwelling, just like a bird is in the air, and the air is in the bird; or a fish in the sea also has the sea in the fish. Being placed in the very life of Christ totally changes our identity, and our destiny. As the 2 Cor. 5 verse states, we are new creations because we are in Christ. The Colossians passage says the New Self walks in a perpetual, and growing renewal (revival), and at the heart of that renewal is Christ who is in all, and is all. Colossians 3:4 says, that “when Christ who is our life is revealed (manifested as He is allowed to live through us) we are revealed with Him in glory. Revival, whether personal, or corporate is living in manifest glory, and manifest glory is the life that Jesus lives, and because we are in Him, He lives that life, and manifests glory in and through us. Ian Thomas used to say that the Christian life is the life He lived then, lived now, by Him, in us. You can’t get more revived than to live in the daily glory of the life Jesus lives. It is a supernatural, radical, freedom filled, adventurous, and hell shaking kind of life. If you are a Christian then you already are a New Creation because you are in Christ, and therefore have full access to the Christ who is ALL. Stop looking for personal revival as something outside of you that you have to achieve. Revival is already in you because you are in Him, so start receiving. Revival is a Him; not an it, or a what. If you are in Christ then you are in revival even if you don’t know it, so start believing, receiving, and celebrating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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