Give it a month and you won't know yourself . . .

Romans 6 says, 3] Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
[4] Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

“That’s not a water baptism, folks,” says Jordan. “There’s not a drop of water in any of Paul’s epistles.

“How do you get INTO Jesus Christ? He isn’t even here; how could you get into Him? Obviously it can’t be a natural, physical thing. If He was standing here you couldn’t get IN Him. You rub up against that (pillar) you can’t get INTO it.

“It’s not a natural, physical thing; it’s a supernatural thing. It’s something God can do. In I Corinthians 12:13, Paul says, ‘For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.’

“The Spirit of God puts you into the Body of Christ. It’s an operation of God, Colossians 2:12 says. It isn’t something a preacher, or a priest, or a pundit does. It’s something God the Holy Ghost does!

“The moment you trust Jesus Christ, He takes you and puts you into a living oneness with His Son. His death becomes your death. His burial becomes your burial. His resurrection becomes your resurrection. And you’re made dead to sin and alive unto God.

“All of your history that belonged to Adam is over with and now you’ve got a new history; a new identity in Jesus Christ. That’s the key to the Christian life. That’s the key to your walk in daily life. You’re dead to sin; you’re dead to the law.

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“The problem people have in their Christian life is they think, ‘Okay, I got saved; now I’m going to go out and show God what a good deal He got when He got me.’

“He doesn’t want any more out of you after you got saved than He wanted before you got saved. It had to be Christ to save you; it has to be Christ to live in you. You can’t live the Christian life no matter how hard you try. Have you ever discovered that?

“I remember as a young believer a preacher asked me, ‘How you doing in your Christian life?’ and I said, ‘It’s tough,’ and He said, ‘It’s not tough; it’s impossible!’ I said, ‘WHAT?!’ He said, ‘Only Jesus Christ can live His life in you.’

“Paul said, ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’

“It’s not I; it’s Christ. In your walk, you’re to walk in the Spirit. Left, right, left, right. That’s walking, right? Left (‘It’s not I’), Right (‘It’s Christ’), Left (‘It’s not I’), Right (‘It’s Christ’). That’s how you walk: 'It’s not I; it’s Christ. It’s not my will; it’s His.'

“Your Christian life is simply you cherishing and valuing and treasuring His will and His thinking more than yours. And where there are decisions to make in life, you say, ‘What He thinks about it is more important than what I think about it and how He feels about it is more important than how I feel about it.’

“How do you know what He thinks about it? You rightly divide the Scripture and find it there. You say, ‘Well, what am I supposed to do?’ Get in the Book and find the answer! If you got to go to the Book to find the answer, you know what—all of a sudden that’s going to be important to you.

“ ‘Well, how do I do it? Do I start in Genesis and read all the way through?' Well, that’s about as dumb as me starting in A and reading to Z in the dictionary. You can do it, but it’s going to take a while and you want the answer a little quicker than that.

“All of a sudden you get this internal motivation to want to do this stuff. And it’s not just some preacher that stands up and says, ‘This is what you ought to do and if you don’t, I’m going to kick you in groin and make it hurt.’

“Paul says what you need to do is come and appreciate who God’s made you in His Son. Sit down, shut up and learn. And ‘when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.’ (I Thessalonians 2:13)

“All of a sudden God’s Word begins to work in you and there’s a living compulsion down in your inner man that just comes out. It’s Christ in you. It’s His life. It’s not you wondering about you; it’s Him living His life as you walk by faith in an intelligent understanding of His Word.

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“Romans teaches you how He has equipped you to live day-by-day on Planet Earth as a member of the Body of Christ in the absolute complete total victory program that’s in Jesus Christ.

“Ephesians says, ‘Now that you know you’re a member of the body and you know how to function, let me explain to you why God created the Body of Christ; what it is He’s going to do with it, what is the goal that God had for us and what’s your future going to be like.’

“God says, ‘There’s a whole governmental structure in the heavens that I need an agency to oversee, and just like Israel is going to oversee my government on the earth, the Body of Christ is going to administer my  government in the angelic realm.' He’ll gather all together into one and heavend and earth will function together as one unit.

“Ephesians takes you into that; gives you the details about it and shows you how your life and ministry now impacts that.

“When I was 17 years old, I went off to celebrate my birthday by myself and I read the Book of Ephesians 17 times. You can do that in one day and have time left over.

“I remember about half way through that day of reading, I got a real good grasp on Ephesians and as I kept reading it, all of a sudden Ephesians got a good grip on me, and one of the most transforming things you’ll ever do in your life is something like that.

“You know what I’d do if I were you? I’d take this week and read the Book of Romans one time. And next week, I’d read it twice. You say, ‘But that’s got 16 chapters and 25,000 words! How am I going to do that?’ Turn off the television. Quit walking around the mall. You might not watch every ball game you hear about.

“You know what? That will add some eternal value to your soul that that stupid boob-tube never could. If you did that for a month, you wouldn’t know yourself. Honestly, God’s Word TRANSFORMS you!”