Colossians 1:27 New King James Version (NKJV)
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The moment that you wake up to the reality of Christ in you, the hope of glory, you’ll step into a place of flourishing, a place of wholeness, a place of victory, a place of prosperity like never before. A lot of us think that because we are now Christians we’ve got to try and get to a place of flourishing. We need to work hard in order to get God’s blessing. But the truth is that the moment that you said “yes” to Jesus is the moment that you start to flourish. The moment you say “yes” to Jesus, God’s a blessing is turned on towards you and all you need to do is receive it. The moment we wake up to who we are in Christ is the moment we start to walk in the peace, victory, freedom and blessing that is already ours in Christ.
“If any man be in Christ, he’s a new creature. The old has gone and the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Your past does not define you but your relationship with God does. You shouldn’t let the wrongs that you’ve done in your past define who you are and what you can do. Don’t allow anything that you’re struggling with today define you. What you do doesn’t define who you are because your relationship with God defines you. All we need to do is wake up to the truth of who we are in Christ; this needs to become our reality.
1 Corinthians 6:17 Living Bible (TLB)
But if you give yourself to the Lord, you and Christ are joined together as one person.
The moment you say “yes” to Jesus you become one with Christ. “The new” that has come (2 Corinthians 5:17) is that your spirit (your inner man) is now one with Him – completely inseparable! There is no separation between you and God. Too many Christians have a “separation mentality”. They feel far from God and believe that they need to try and get closer to Him through their efforts. But that’s not the case.
John 15:5 Living Bible (TLB)
“Yes, I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him shall produce a large crop of fruit. For apart from me you can’t do a thing.
This is talking about how to flourish. The answer is simple: we need to be connected to Christ. Too many Christians see themselves as separate from God and trying to get closer to Him when the truth is that you are closer to God than the breath that you’re breathing right now. Think about that. That is a powerful truth! I lived a lot of my Christian life trying to get closer to God and when I woke up to the truth that I am now one with Him – inseparable from Him – that I am as close to God as I’m ever going to get, it radically changed my life! Now I just need to realize how close I am to him and as a result, I grow in intimacy with Him. This revelation caused me to walk in more flourishing, in more victory, in more peace etc. We need to see that we are utterly one with Jesus. He said, “I’m the vine and you are the branches.” The Vine and the branches are part of each other. They have different functions. The Vine gives the branch life and the life of the branch is from the Vine. We’ve got to see ourselves as connected to and linked with, inseparable from, Christ.
2 Peter 1:4 New King James Version (NKJV)
By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
We are partakers of the Divine Nature. That means that we have His divine godly nature is inside of us. We have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) and power (Acts 1:8) inside of us. We need to meditate on and become more familiar with this – that we have His Divine nature in us. Most of us are more familiar with our shortcomings, failings and our mistakes that we are familiar with who we are in Christ. Too many Christians are trying to obtain something that they already possess. They’re trying to get closer to God. We need to see who we already are in Christ! We’re not trying to become but we’re trying to discover.
1 John 5:13 New King James Version (NKJV)
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
We already have eternal life. We have salvation and all the benefits of salvation. They belong to us. If we do not know what is rightfully ours because of who we now are in Christ we will never walk in the authority that we have in Christ. If we believe on the Name of the Son of God, we are able to operate in His power and live a life of flourishing. Right now, you are a child of God. You have got all the authority you need to rise up and overcome and walk in victory. When you realize who you are in Christ you’ll be enabled to rise up to be all that you were created to be in Christ and you will start to flourish in every part of your life.