Appropriate attire for walk

To appropriate anything into your Christian walk, there are two things you have to have.

"The first thing is you've got to know about it; you have to see what you already have in Christ," explains Jordan. "Get a grip on the riches that are yours in Christ Jesus with a literal reality of your current identity at this moment in Him.

"The key to the Christian life is knowing your identity and you can never know it if you don't study the Bible rightly-divided.

"The other component is you not only have to know who you are, you have to be aware of your NEED of it. Because you'll never reach out and appropriate into your experience something unless you know that you really need it.

"That's what happened to Paul in Romans 7. He wasn't identifying himself as God did. He slipped back into identifying himself as HE identified himself.

"Paul says in one little phrase in Galatians 20, 'Yet not I, but Christ.' You got to have those 'It's not I' moments where you become aware of your bankruptcy so that the riches of Christ become the thing that's the need of your heart.

"Appropriating into your experience is closed to all but the needy heart. It's available only to those who'll say, 'It's not I, but Christ.' And with those two things--a conscious awareness of faith-trust in who you are and then a realization of your absolute need in every moment for it--you then need a lifetime of spiritual growth.

"Friend, it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work that process into the details of your life. That's why Romans 7 is not in Romans 2 or 5.

"We've all experienced this where you get on the mountaintop and it's, 'I've got the joy, joy, joy down in my heart,' and then a little while later you're down in the doldrums and you say, 'I don't think I'll ever see the mountaintop again for the clouds.'

"When you're in those moments of need, rather than being mad or depressed, that's a moment to say, 'You know, here's a Not-I experience. I'm down here because I've been trusting me. Here's an opportunity to grow because that's exactly what God's grace is trying to get me to . . .'

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“When we’re talking about the 'blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,’ we’re talking about the love, the joy, the peace, the longsuffering.

“God has taken your sin and set you free. He’s taken the guilt and sent it to Calvary. He said, ‘I’ll remember it no more. I’ll not connect it back with your identity again. I’ll do it permanently and forever. You never have to come and ask me to accept you. I already have. You never have to ask to please forgive me my sins. I already have. I’ve made you complete. I’ve blessed you with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Now all I want you to do is take what I’ve already given you and bring it into the experience of your life on a daily basis.’

“Colossians 2:10 says, ‘And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.’  But then look at chapter 4:12: ‘Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.’

“Wait a minute—I thought they were complete?! Why is Epaphras praying and laboring that they would BE complete?

“Paul says in Ephesians 1, ‘You’re accepted in the beloved.’ In II Corinthians 5:9, he says, ‘Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.’

“You say, ‘Wait a minute—I thought I was accepted!’ That’s the difference between your standing and your state; your position in Christ and your practice in time; your identity in Him and then that identity living in your experience now.

“If you’re complete in Him, there’s nothing to make your more complete. All you need to do is appropriate the completeness you already have—bring it in to your experience. Have the practical, experiential possession of what already belongs to you.

“That is to experience the joy of, ‘I am forgiven.’ Whew! That’s a wonderful thing. Let that inform your mind so that your emotions know how to relate to reality.

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“I was at a Bible conference in Tennessee where a woman driving to the event was in a bad car wreck. She was injured quite severely and had a limb amputated and people asked, ‘Why?!’ But there was something in this lady’s inner man that gave her joy in spite of it all.

“You see, it’s ‘according to the riches of His grace.’ (Eph. 1:7) You can feel forgiven even when the circumstances don’t make out like you ought to. But you got to remember, no Believer ever fell into maturity overnight. This is a lifelong process of spiritual growth, of learning over and over, ‘It’s not I; it’s Christ.’

"You take little baby steps at first and then you become a person who can walk. But it’s always, ‘Not I but Christ.’ It’s always seeing the riches that are mine in Him and becoming aware of my need of that. Seeing and needing brings us from a child that’s meandering around to a responsible, specific walk of faith. It’s called maturity; it’s called being an adult.

“Paul says, ‘Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.’

“God desires adults for children and He brings us to that maturity day by day as we see, ‘It’s not I; it’s Christ.’ And our redemption and forgiveness is according to the riches of His grace that produces that.”