Christ My Life

By Ike Ugochuku

For any Christian the commitment to God is more than a religious event, it is in response to the innate desire for intimacy with God. Man desires an absolute stamp of approval from his creator, the freedom to come into the presence of God anytime, to discuss eyeball to eyeball with God. He desires an intimate relationship with God, which is the reason for his creation. This book examines the impact of the grace of God in the Christian life, how Christ has completely fulfilled all that is required from us to be holy and acceptable before God. Now we can freely come into his presence, plan and do things together with him. The author does an excellent job dissecting the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He shows that the Lord is not just our savior, but that we died when he died and a new person with the same name as ours was born when Christ resurrected. He shows that Christ is now our Life and by standing faithfully on who we are now, the new life can express itself naturally.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ike Ugochuku
• Release date: Mar 27, 2014

Book preview

PROLOGUE

As I settle down to pen this book, I can’t help but recall that it’s been 10 years since I wrote and published "Christ My Life: Self-Revelation." A lot has been happened in those 10 years and the truths about grace have sunk even deeper. Only the other day, I was saying it appears I have just entered into a rich vein of God, where nothing is impossible and the mighty fall at his feet in submission.

What have I learnt in these 10 years? I’ve learnt that He loves us, that He believes in us even when we don’t believe in ourselves, that He never condemns us on any grounds. My brethren, He is a phenomenal person, beyond description, I have never met anyone like Him. He is my Father and my friend.

Originally, I had planned to write five different books in a form of series, but looking at the manuscripts of the first three books, I can see that they are all relevant to the foundation of the Christian life. You have to be grounded in these truths before you can enter into the stage of maturity where you and God talk cheek to cheek and His awesome presence leaves you speechless. So I put the three manuscripts together as one book.

Like many of you, my main question has always been Can the Christian life be natural? Yes, it can! This is the goal of the book, to show you that it can be as natural as breathing. My wife says, if this book can minister to only one person, it has been worth the effort. I pray by the end of this book, that the Holy Spirit would have revealed the truths of grace to you and take you to a place of new beginnings. A place when you and your Father will discuss freely, and you won’t worry about what you have done or not done. Amen.

Part I

SELF-REVELATION

1

WHO AM I?

The question of self-identity merits careful study. It lays a solid foundation for all spirituality. I would advise every Christian to spend time on this topic until you really know who you are. Are we just what we see with our eyes? Or is there something else that defines us? Let’s look at what the Bible says.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 states: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved.

The key phrase is spirit, soul and body. Man is a spirit, he has a soul, which is the expressive part of him, and he lives in a body, which displays his expressions. The soul shows what is contained in the spirit or what the spirit is made of. I am a spirit; I have a soul which expresses what is in me. The soul is made up of the mind, will and emotions. The mind contains information, the will acts on this information and the emotions express this action. Let us look closely at the mind.

The mind consists of two parts: there is the visible part, known as the brain; and the invisible part, known as the consciousness. The invisible part can be further broken into the sub-conscious part as well. The brain contains information about physical things that enables you to recognize physical objects like tables, chairs, and houses. It defines the objects around you.

The spirit uses the information in the brain to achieve a goal. The life of a spirit determines the way the information will be used. There are two types of spirit life, a good life or an evil life. A good spirit will use the information for good, thus producing a good soul, while an evil spirit will use the information for evil, producing an evil soul.

Matthew 15:17 explains, For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts.... The heart here refers to the core of man, which is the spirit, so I can paraphrase this, out of the spirit, proceeds (comes out) evil thoughts….

The mind is the place of thoughts. Evil thoughts are ignited by the activity of spirit in the soul through the mind. You could say the spirit thinks in the mind. The will is the part that acts, based on the thoughts, which results in visible actions. The truths in God’s Word are spoken to the spirit of the man. God is a spirit and therefore communicates to the spirit, while the soul expresses only what is in the spirit. If God must change the man he must change the spirit and not the soul. The distinction between spirit and soul is purely for the exercise of discussion, to separate the source from the application or operation of that source. In reality, they co-exist. You cannot have a spirit with no soul or a soul without a spirit.

You either have a good heart, out of which proceeds goodness all the time, or you have an evil heart, which produces evil all the time. Jesus defines who is good in Matthew 19:17 And He said unto him, "Why callest thou me good? There is none good