Whole

Whole

...a new creation

Growing up, I heard time and time again that we are all sinners and broken people going through life and trying to do the best we possibly can to love and live like Jesus. Or that we are all inherently bad people that Jesus had to die for us just so we wouldn't burn in hell and that we're all just hanging on by a thread until Jesus comes back...and hopefully he comes back soon. 

I don't know about you, but this kind of Christian life doesn't sound too appealing to me and maybe that's why I ran from it in my younger years. Who wants to live miserable lives serving an angry God who is just waiting to clean up the mess all of us keep making? 

Not me!

This twisted mindset has been preached for years from some pulpits with all the fire and brimstone along with it. I'm not saying that it's not okay to call out what is sin and teach on how to a live a righteous life, but I feel like it's a lot harder to look up at the mountain of righteousness and feel like I have to climb to the top to attain it than to realize that I'm already righteous because of my Savior and that I'm already at the summit! 

An amazing woman that I follow on Instagram made a post recently that read, "You're not a project to be fixed. Your a heart being made whole. Jesus didn't die to fix us, He died to save us, wounds and all." 

My heart lept at these words because I knew that it was the true heart of my God. His mission from the very start was always to redeem us back to the Garden. In the words of my Pastor Darin Gleghorn, "to love on His children from His lap, not the gap that we put between Him and us."

"Now if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new. And God has made all things new, and reconciled us to himself, and given us the ministry of reconciling others to God." (2 Corinthians 5:17-18 The Passion Translation)

God wasn't satisfied with just keeping us from going to hell, we wanted to give us all that He had and pull us close to him. Close enough to hear his voice, feel his heart beat and love him back. As a new creation in Christ we are transformed into having the same Spirit that lives in Jesus. The same Spirit that healed the sick and broken-hearted. The same Spirit that resurrected the dead and the same Spirit that couldn't be held down by the grave itself! 

Learning to live and operate from the victory in Jesus Christ instead of the victim mentality that the devil and this world would like to keep us in is when we will finally operate as "the righteousness of God!" (2 Corinthians 5:21 TPT)

Kris Vallotton teaches that the word "creation" in 2 Corinthians means "prototype." The first of it's kind. What this means is the past our flesh likes to keep digging up and replaying in our minds is not there anymore because we are a new creation. The old man is dead! 

The truth is, though, sometimes we don't feel like a new creation. We screw up weekly, daily and sometimes hourly and we don't feel like we are the righteousness of God. But that's the cool thing that I've found out about my Papa God, He's not sitting there saying, "Oh great, here we go again!" He's looking at you with only the eyes of a loving parent can, saying, "Come on kiddo, you're so much more than this. I see the amazing, awesome creation that you are. Get up, dust yourself off and let's go have some fun and show people my true nature."

Learning to keep our eyes on a God that will not allow us to stay down when we fall is what it takes to start operating from His already completed victory over this world. Reading His word and filling ourselves up with the Bread of Life is what will continually satisfy us and make us whole. And I want to add one more thing that has helped me operate in this victory...WORSHIP! Putting on worship music, surrendering and all out praising my God has helped me win every battle I've had to fight in the past.

So, my darling friend, YOU ARE THE CHILD OF THE KING OF KINGS! You were created to overcome darkness with the Light that shines bright within you and even though you may feel broken and in shambles, God is working hard right now to keep showing you exactly how He sees you and to go before you in your struggles and battles forevermore.