Jesus Death Was Not in Vain: Know Who You Are in Christ

By Patricia Coleman

"In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jun 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466939936

Patricia Coleman

I was inspired by God to write this book. I believe that my book will help a lot of people to live a successful and fulfilling life. I live in Cleveland, Ohio. I am divorced and very active in my church, New Spirit Revival, Cleveland, Ohio. I enjoy exercising and helping people to live more productive lives.

Book preview

Contents

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 1

Know Who You Are in Christ

Isaiah 54:14 says, In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you. Do you know what it means to be established in righteousness? It means to be right with God—to be able to stand in the presence of a holy, awesome, almighty God without a sense of guilt or inferiority. Think about that! What must it be like to be established in righteousness? What must it be like to know without a shadow of a doubt that there is absolutely nothing wrong between you and God? No, sir, nothing. What must it be like for everything to be so right that every time you walk in the door, the Father says, Yes, yes, yes, before you can even ask him for anything?

It is easy for us to believe things are that way between God and Jesus. But please realize this: you were given the righteousness of God through exactly the same miraculous occurrences that made him sin with your sin. Here is 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21:

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are new. And all things are of God; who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

We have the same entrance to our heavenly Father because of what Jesus did. I know that may be hard for some of us to understand, but we have to keep working on it. We have to keep thinking about it all the time; we have to keep meditating on it and developing a righteousness consciousness instead of a sin consciousness.

God’s power will help you. (It is not willpower.) Your willpower is there to make the choice, but the power of God is what empowers you to stand for what you know God wants you to do. A person who is not born again does not have the power of God, because his spirit is dead and there is no life of God in him; willpower is all such a person has. First John 3:7-10 says,

Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

We have authority to crucify the flesh. You have to talk to your flesh, because it wants to do what it wants to do. You have to tell your flesh, You are not going to have your way. I am a child of God, and I am not going to do and practice the things that are displeasing to him. I am going to practice righteousness. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Die for him. What will happen as you do that? You will not be afraid to do exploits in Jesus’s name. You will not be afraid to act like him. You will not be afraid boldly to claim what is yours in Jesus Christ. You will not be afraid to lay hands on the sick, believing they will recover. You will not be afraid to believe God for your healing or for the finances you need. So become skillful in the word of righteousness. Receive that you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. Receive that you are established in righteousness. Stand and be what God intended you to be without any sense of guilt or inferiority and live in victory every day. It is your God-given right as a child of God.

Second Corinthians 5 says, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new . . . For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him(verses 17 and 21). The devil is afraid that Christians are going to find out just who they are in Christ and the power and authority Christ has given them, because when they do, the devil’s days in their lives will be numbered. So naturally the devil tries to keep you ignorant of God’s will for you. Until you know who you are and the authority you have in Jesus’s name, you are not being all that God wants you to be. He needs you; you are his hands and feet here on the earth. We are the ones God will use to put the devil in his proper place, which is under our feet. God sent his only son, Jesus, to die for us not only to forgive our sins but also to redeem us back from under the devil’s control. To be redeemed means to be returned to the original state. The second Adam has returned us to the original authority that man had under God before the first Adam sinned.

Galatians 3:10: For as many as are under the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all the things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Here is the problem! So many of God’s children are still under the curse. That verse says, For as many as are under the works of the law are under the curse." You are not saved by doing things for God; you are saved by God’s grace. It is a gift from God so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8).

This is how the devil controls God’s people: he gets them to think that they can earn their way to heaven by doing some great things for God, when in actuality you are saved by grace, lest any man should boast (praise God). Did you get that? It is only by your faith in God’s son that you are saved. John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

When you really get a revelation of who you are in Christ and the power and authority that Christ has given you, the devil’s days are over in your life. That is how he controls us—by ignorance. Not knowing who you are means still living under the curse. The Bible says in Colossians 1:13 that the Father has delivered and drawn us to himself out of the control and dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the son of his love. Do you know what that is saying? At one time, before Jesus came, we were under the devil’s control after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, but now God has delivered and drawn us to himself out of the control of the devil (read that scripture again). If that does not make you shout, I do not know what will. We have been transferred out of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love. God loves us so much, he gave his son so we could live. (If that is not love, I do not know what is.)

It is time for the body of Christ to quit playing church. God did not give his son to die for us just to have something to do. Adam sold out to the devil, and God made a way for us. Let’s read Colossians 1:13 again: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. This scripture is saying a lot. When Adam sinned, he took everything. In the beginning, God gave Adam dominion over everything, but when he sinned, he lost it; he was no longer in the kingdom of God’s dear son; he was transferred into the devil’s kingdom, and keep in mind that the devil’s kingdom is under the curse. But when Jesus came and we accepted him as our lord, we were no longer under the curse; we were transferred into the kingdom of God’s dear son, where the blessings are. God said in Deuteronomy 30:19-20, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and cursing: therefore choose life, that both