Colossians 3:3-4 NASB
[3] For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. …
Psalm 139:13-18 NASB
[13] For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. [14] I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. [15] My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; [16] Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. [17] How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! [18] If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You. …
In 2 Corinthians 12:2, Paul refers to himself as “A man in Christ.” Paul’s self-consciousness, and his self-awareness was that he was a man in Christ. That was his identity. When he thought of himself, he always thought of himself through the grid of being in Christ. As Christians you are either a man or woman, boy, or girl in Christ. That is who you are, and you can never allow yourself to think about yourself apart from the self-awareness and self-consciousness of being in Christ. Being in Christ means that Jesus is living his life, from the heavenly places, through you. But it’s important to understand that Jesus is living his life through “YOU.”
You have been uniquely created, and fashioned, to be a tailor made vessel and container through which Christ can live. No one else who has ever lived, or who ever will live will be exactly like you, and therefore, you alone can uniquely carry a manifestation of Christ shining into the world. Look what Psalm 139 says, it says that God formed your inward parts, and your frame, and your unformed substance. This is talking about your physical body, your unique appearance, and even your internal organs, and your unique personality. David says about himself, in light of all that, that he would give thanks because he believed he was fearfully and wonderfully made. When he thought about himself and how he was created on the inside and out, he said God’s works are wonderful, and that his soul knows it very well. He believed that God’s thoughts towards him were precious, and they were so vast that he couldn’t count them because they outnumbered the sand. Does your soul know it very well that you are fearfully and wonderfully made? Do you give thanks to God for your looks, and your personality, or do you live constantly in a state of self rejection, comparing yourselves to others, wishing that you looked like them, or had their personality. You’re in Christ, and Jesus is living his life through you from the heavenly places, but you will never be able to abide in that, or manifest that if you live in a constant self-consciousness of self rejection, and self-hatred. You could never fulfill your destiny if you did not look the way you look, and did not have the personality you have. It is a lie of the devil to believe that if you were like someone else you would have a better chance at happiness. True happiness is being consciously aware that Christ is your life, and that you are allowing him to live his life, and rell his story through you. He can only do that fully through the person that he created you to be.