JOHN BOWLIN
MINISTRIES
Preaching and Teaching Everywhere
IN HIM REALITIES
The Great Confession
Romans 10:9-10 - 9 And what is God’s “living message”? It is the revelation of faith for salvation,[a] which is the message that we preach. For if you publicly declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will experience salvation. 10 The heart that believes in him receives the gift of the righteousness of God—and then the mouth gives thanks[b] to salvation.
First things first, we must make our confession of Jesus as our Lord. Being born-again, becoming the child of God, is the key which unlocks all God's provision and promises to us.
This confession changes our Lordship. It defines our position. The confession of the Lordship of Jesus immediately puts us under the care, under the protection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Shepherd. We have confessed Him as Lord so we can go a step further and confess Him as Shepherd. The 23rd Psalm now belongs to us; Jesus said in John 10:14 "I am the good Shepherd."
Now that the Lord is our Shepherd; we can say boldly, "I don't want for anything. I don't want for ability. I don't want for strength. I don't want for money. The Lord is my Shepherd.
New Creature
2 Corinthians 5:16-20 - Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.
A Christian is not made over or renovated; he is a new creature, a new creation something that never existed before. The Christian, at new birth, does not have a new physical body, though he will one day. It is the man on the inside who is a new creation. The old man who used to be there is gone. The inward man is the real you. This inward man, the real man is a new creation and takes on the very life and nature of God. Learn to let this new man on the inside dominate the outward man.
You Are Righteous in Christ Jesus
2 Corinthians 5:21 (AMPC) 21 - For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [[a]endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].
We boldly declare that God has made us righteous. We didn't do it. God did it. We are in right standing with God. Jesus Who is righteous became our righteousness. Therefore, we can stand in the presence of God as though we had never done wrong. We can stand in God's presence without a sense of condemnation or spiritual inferiority complex.
Romans 8:1 (AMPC) - Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.
Righteousness means the ability to stand in the presence of the Father God without the sense of guilt or inferiority. God has dealt with the sin problem in His Son. He has put sin away by the sacrifice of that Son. He has made it possible on legal grounds for man who is spiritually dead, in union with Satan, to become a New Creation by receiving the very nature and life of God. This life and nature of God is Righteousness. Consequently, the man who has received the nature of God has automatically become the Righteousness of God in Christ. You are in Christ Jesus RIGHT NOW, present tense, there is no sense of condemnation about you.
You are God's Workmanship
Ephesians 2:10 (AMPC) - For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), [a]recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].
God has made you a worthy new creature. He made you a new creature who could stand in His presence as though you had never committed a sin. He made you a righteous new creature. Begin to see yourself as God sees you. Would the New you, please stand up?
In Whom We Have Redemption
Colossians 1:13-14 (AMPC) - 13 [The Father] has delivered and [a]drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son [b]of His love, 14 In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, [which means] the forgiveness of our sins.
Ephesians 1:7 (AMPC) - 7 In Him we have redemption (deliverance and salvation) through His blood, the remission (forgiveness) of our offenses (shortcomings and trespasses), in accordance with the riches and the generosity of His gracious favor,
We are now delivered from the authority of darkness, from the power of Satan. By virtue of the new birth we have been delivered out of the kingdom of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son. Satan's dominion ended the moment we accepted Jesus as Lord and were born-again.
You Are Crucified With Christ
Galatians 2:20 (AMPC) - 20 I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
You are crucified with Christ. You don't have to try to do it. You now live in Christ! And Christ lives in you!
Colossians 1:26-27 (CEV) - 26 For ages and ages this message was kept secret from everyone, but now it has been explained to God’s people. 27 God did this because he wanted you Gentiles to understand his wonderful and glorious mystery. And the mystery is that Christ lives in you, and he is your hope of sharing in God’s glory.
Christ Lives In You!
You Were Raised Up Together With Him
Ephesians 2:1,4-6 (AMPC) - 4 But God—so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us,
5 Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved ([a]delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation).
6 And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us [b]joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
You were crucified with Christ. When Jesus was quickened and made alive; you were quickened with Him. You were raised up together with Him and made to sit together with Him in heavenly places. Today, positionally, you are seated with Christ in heavenly places.
As a Christian - As a Believer
Find the scriptures in the Bible, specifically the Epistles in the New Testament and look for the expressions "In Christ," "In Him," "In Whom." Begin to read them out-loud and say this is who I am, and this is what I am and this is what I have in Christ.
Faith's confessions create realities. The Bible is a legal document, sealed by the Blood of Jesus. However, it is your believing and your confessing it which makes it a reality to you.
God wants us to enjoy and know the reality of what He has provided for us, and His Word tells us how to do it!