Living Epistles

Have you ever noticed that if you spend time around people who have strong personalities, you will automatically be affected by them? You'll find yourself doing the things they do. Their mannerisms will rub off on you. You can't help it. They just influence you, because you find yourself with them all the time. After a while you can even think what they think or what they would have said about a certain issue. You become so intimately intertwined with that person.

The same thing is true in your relationship with God. If you spend enough time with Him, being so aware of His opinion of you, that He's going to rub off on you! His thoughts will become your thoughts and His ways will become your ways. Hang around His Word and feed the real you, the spirit man. Before you know it, you'll begin to notice yourself changing. You'll find your character becoming more like His. You'll begin to think like He thinks and talk like He does and even act like He does. His image will begin to shine forth in you! 2 Corinthians 3:5-18; Gal 2:20

This is exactly what Jesus did in His relationship with the Father. Just to remind you. We already discovered in our previous study that faith has everything to do with our identity in Christ. (2 Cor13:5) . See what He says"The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him" –John 8:29

Jesus lived by faith. Did you know that? Some people don't seem to realize that. They think that because He was the Son of God, He just floated through life with some mystical, supernatural power we could never have. But Jesus Himself said that the Father hadn't left Him alone and that He always did those things that please His Father. Jesus walked by faith - and He got that faith the same way we get it. Hebrews11:6 “for without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ" (Romans 10:17)

Jesus had always lived by faith. He was living by faith when He was just a young boy of 12 years old saying, "I have to be about My Father's business." Who told Him God was his father? He said, "As my Father hath taught me, I speak these things" (John 8:28). Jesus had to be taught. Year by year, He kept growing in faith, just as He grew physically. How was He taught? By the Holy Spirit through the written Word! Luke 4:16 says that when Jesus came to Nazareth, "as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read." Jesus was a Bible reader! That was His custom. He studied. He meditated. He continued in the Word of God. He preached the Word of God. The Father's opinion soon became His meditation.

We simply cannot afford to cast aside our Bibles and go skipping off after signs and wonders. No! Our Father needs us to grow up in Him. He needs those who will dare to stand on the Word and develop their faith so that instead of seeking miracles at the hands of others, they will become the hands that deliver those miracles. And that is the day we're living in. Jesus did and you are His disciple.

But what does the Word reveal? It reveals the awesome desire of the living God.
"For those whom He foreknew--of whom He was aware and loved beforehand--He also destined from the beginning...to be moulded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness]." (Romans 8:29, The Amplified Bible) Gal 1:15 The Father's desires to reveal himself in and through us. The Word of God needs to be interpreted in the light of this truth. His Word is spirit and life. The Bible will become so precious to you if you can discover God’s immense desire to reveal Him in you. The Word is all about Jesus and Jesus is the revelation of your life. He successfully redeemed you to fully express Him. Read John 2:1-11, Psalm17:15, James1:19-23, the Bible is a mirror.

As a believer, you're destined to be moulded into the image of Jesus, to grow in spirit until you look just like Him, outwardly. We are already like Him in this world. The Word says as He is, so are we in this world. (1 John4:17) You were changed on the inside. How successful you are in allowing this change to progress to the outer man is mostly up to you. We grow up spiritually just like we grow up physically. True discipleship is about mirroring - model the life - be imitators of Christ; Living epistles.

Religion has tried to reduce the gospel to a sermon or message when God had a life in mind. The message merely contains the revelation of the life within. That’s why Jesus could say: "today the scriptures are fulfilled in your hearing." The manual points to Immanuel, God with us, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Act 17:11 “...The Jews received Paul's message with enthusiasm and met with him daily, examining the Scriptures to see if they supported what he said”. God spoke to us through His Son. All God ever wanted to say to the human race, He said through His Son. Hebr1:1-3 Jesus is the exact representation of the Father and all about you at the same time. In His light we see light. You cannot become more than what God already made you to be but you can walk in a greater awareness and appreciation of your true identity in Christ as you fellowship with Him through His Word. Be willing to live by the spirit and not the senses, so He can guide you, teach you and live His life through you.

I pray that God will give you a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of the glory of God (Glory, Greek doxa = Opinion), in the face of Christ Jesus. 2 Cor4:4-7

You’re about to enter one of the most exciting and fulfilling times of your life, because He chose and designed you to be an expression of Himself. That, my friend, is the greatest thrill of all.

Love you guys,
Tanswell and Portia

Can it be? As He Is So Are We!

I am so thrilled by this one verse: Look at the tenses in the verse.
1John4:17 "Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world"

Do you think right now Jesus is worried, afraid, hopeless, depressed, concerned about the future, in sin, sick, lack conscious, feel distant from His Father, I don’t think so, do you?

In the light of this question I would like to bring to your attention the b-part of this verse.

"As He is (right now, not 2000 years ago) are you in this world" Give it a bit of thought, ponder on it. You need to KNOW AND DISCOVER THE REAL YOU. Jesus is all about you. He came to reveal the true you, in Himself. He is the light of your life. He's life awakens the light to your true identity. John1:4

Is there more to you than just the meat box and the looks, the background, history, the bank balance, feelings and emotions?

If nobody ever told you, you are just like Him; you just heard the best news of your life. Could it be that someone lied to you concerning your true identity or that you believed a lie about yourself.

As He is so are we in this world. Don't settle for any lessor opinion. You carry His label, His inscription. He is your true origin. That's why Jesus is not ashamed to call you his brother, because you come from the same Father. Heb 2:11. You have the same origin. The Pharisees came to Jesus to test Him out. Shall we pay taxes? He replied: "Bring me a coin whose portrait or inscription is on it? Caesar’s they reply, now render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and render to God what belongs to God." You were created for His pleasure. Eph 2:10 says you are His workmanship. When you esteem the new creation you are esteeming the Creator. To belittle the creation is to belittle the Creator. You are His workmanship.

Eternity knew us long before time could define us.
God has a bigger claim to our lives than our past, our genealogy, organisation, the devil or any person for that matters. Gal 1:15 “…we were set apart from our mother's womb (natural identity) to reveal Christ in us and to preach Him in the nations” The secret of our lives is our union with Him. The secret to the success of our lives is our consciousness of our union with Him. We are the dream of God realised. We are not a mere experiment of man’s desire or aspirations. Our identity was sealed in Christ Jesus and whenever Jesus is revealed we are co-revealed with Him. Col3:1-4; 2 Cor13:5; Col 1:26;27.

In this day and days to come, purpose to walk in an awareness and consciousness of the living Christ that indwells you. It takes an agreement on your part to believe what He thinks of you. See how your life will be transformed when you believe and awake to this truth.

Your faith has everything to do with your identity.
What do you believe, if God is convinced you are just as Jesus is, right now? HAVE THE FAITH OF GOD! The only faith worth pursuing is what God believes. Gal 4:9 “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?

Paul realised that only God’s faith and opinion of Him has a lasting impact that results in true freedom and liberty. Look into the perfect law of liberty and see yourself in the mirror of His Word. Only those who are willing to gaze deeply into the mirror of His Word will enjoy the fruitfulness of what the gospel reveals in Christ. Deception is merely adhering and agreeing to a foreign identity. As He is so are we in this world and anything less is to walk in deception and to fail the test of what faith came to reveal.

“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test? 2 Cor 13:5

Awake, o sleeper and let Christ arise and shine in and through you.

Love you guys!