The Exchanged Life: The Revelation of Jesus Christ in You

By Rhonda Mead

There is more to your Christian walk than you are experiencing! Many writings of the past speak of entering God's rest, the deeper walk, the life hid with Christ in God, or the victorious Christian life. Nonetheless, many, after studying the truths of The Exchanged Life, never experience it. Others have earnestly rededicated their lives to Christ numerous times, completely surrendered at every alter call, worked in ministry until they were totally disenchanted and pressed in until they were wore out, yet found the peace and joy the Bible speaks so freely of, an elusive dream. If self-effort, zeal, or diligence were the key, many would be experiencing abundant life, but they are not! God has a reality for you""on this earth""that few will ever taste. The Kingdom of God is at hand and is available for you to walk in now, in preparation for eternity. If you are drawn to the teachings of the patriarchs of the church age... Watchman Nee Jessie Penn-Lewis Andrew Murray Oswald Chambers Thomas a'Kempis Madame Guyon Major Ian Thomas T. Austin-Sparks ...then you will appreciate the depth of the mystery of the Gospel presented inside this volume. It is presented in a way all may understand and enter in. Our prayer for you is that Jesus Christ may be revealed in you, that this world may see Him, and that you may walk in the true freedom found only through His life, exchanged for yours.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781642584080

Book preview

Chapter 1

Confidence in God

Why is the church of Christ, the very body of the living Lord, virtually powerless in turning this world upside down? There are revivals stirring in other parts of the world. We have moments of intense manifestations of the Holy Spirit in America, but by and large, Jesus is not seen.

We do not see the power of God in our everyday lives because we have not placed our confidence in Him. There is more to confidence than just acknowledging the Lord’s presence in our midst. In order for confidence in God to have its perfect work, we must have come to the end of trusting any other person or thing.

One of the greatest reasons for the power of God not being seen in America is our affluence. It is very difficult to have no confidence in anyone or anything but God, when there are so many other options available. If you are without a job, there is unemployment. When your unemployment runs out, there is government assistance. If your employment ends because of illness, there are workman’s compensation and disability benefits. Not that any of these are wrong in themselves, but there are so many means of escape besides God. Few turn to God as their sole source of deliverance, because so many other ways exist. There are so many things for our confidence to be in that even if we are praying and trusting God, the bottom line is our trust is not in Him alone. Consequently, where we are double minded regarding the source of our hope for deliverance, there is little power.

Even with our affluence, and the many options available, we could still follow our heart’s leading in order to wait upon the Lord. Yet for us to be obedient to the prompting of our hearts, we will usually have to undergo discomfort. When we are unwilling to undergo discomfort in order to see the power of God manifested in our lives, we will seldom see the deliverance that the saints of old experienced. When we experience divine deliverance in our lives, our faith is strengthened and we have great confidence in God, not only in His ability to deliver us but in His desire to move mightily in our lives. Our Father is always ready to help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1 NLT), but we seldom wait long enough to see His solution. We do not see miracles and answers that are greater than we could ever ask or think, because we do not, wait for the Lord (Isaiah 40:31). The word wait in Isaiah 40:31 means to depend on without an alternate plan. When we do wait only on God as our source of hope, we are promised that we will run and not get tired …walk and not become weary (Isaiah 40:31). The problem is few wait for the Lord. In order to wait, we must have no confidence in anything or anyone else besides God and must be determined to rest in our confidence of His eventual deliverance. When we do, we will see divine intervention in our lives that will not only deliver us out of our plight but will also strengthen our trust in God. It has often been said that if we never had anything to be delivered out of, we would not know God as our deliverer. If we never had a need, we would not know Him as our provider. If we were never sick, we would not know Him as our healer.

The process, then, is to have a great need in our life or great lack in our character. Then to remain in that situation long enough to know that there is no way we can change ourselves or change the situation we find ourselves in. Finally, we must not take or make an avenue of escape other than God’s deliverance. If we will depend only on Him, we will see the power of God move in our lives, and we will have greater and greater confidence in Him.

Our lack of confidence in God’s ability to set us free from any situation or any personal bondage is especially true in the case of mental health. We might be able to accept that God will always provide for our material needs, we might believe that He is our healer and be willing to endure great physical pain, we may understand the power of the life of our risen Savior within us to change our character into His image and be able to wait for Him to perfect that which concerns us; but presented with an emotional or mental problem in ourselves or others, we will usually run to someone with credentials.

What credentials did Jesus have? He was born in a manger and raised as a carpenter, with only a small amount of schooling. Yet when the man possessed by Legion stood before Jesus, He trusted in the One who had sent Him, and the man from Gerasenes left clothed and in his right mind. Remember, Jesus came to earth and lived as a man, filled with Holy Spirit, totally dependent on the Father, to show us how we should and can walk.

Believing that Jesus is the answer to every mental, emotional, or physical need we will ever have seems like a radical stand, but the scripture clearly teaches this perspective. There are Christian professionals who are trained in psychotherapy and psychiatry, but the scripture does not say the power of God is in the training of men. It says:

The word of the cross…is the power of God, and the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (I Corinthians 1:25)

Who or what is your confidence in?

Christian counseling professionals are trained with material derived from humanistic secular psychology. There is no biblical curriculum for psychotherapy. The very root of the word psychotherapy, that being psycho, refers to the soul, the area of the personality—the realm of the mind, will, and emotions. The curriculum that we Christians derive from the world teaches us how to deal with the soul of man. Consequently, well-meaning Christian professionals are taught, even in Christian colleges to deal with the soul. The diagnosed emotional and mental health problems manifest themselves in the realm of the soul, but these are only the symptoms of the real problem—self in control of the life, instead of Christ.

Most Christians do not have confidence in the power of the cross, because they do not understand what happened to them when they were born again. When we accepted Jesus as our savior, we were baptized into Christ Jesus (Romans 6:3). This means that we were immersed into His life. Christ’s life has no beginning, and it will never end. There is also no time element in the spirit. So once we are in Christ, it is as though we were always in Him. Our mortal minds which are programmed to time cannot understand what scripture clearly teaches as reality. In other words, we were in Christ when He was crucified, when He was buried, when He defeated the forces of hell, and when He rose again and sat down at the right hand of the Father.

This is the word of the cross that the perishing do not understand. Regretfully, the perishing can also include believers who have not identified with Christ in His death. We can be destined to spend eternity with God and still not be experiencing the kingdom of heaven on this earth. God’s kingdom is life. Satan’s kingdom is death. We can be citizens of the kingdom of God and not be experiencing much more of abundant life than unbelievers who belong to Satan’s kingdom. We must live according to kingdom principles in order to experience God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. When we live by kingdom principles and identify with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, we will know that the word of the cross is definitely the power of God.

We have let our lack of confidence and understanding of what Christ in us really means compel us to run to those who depend on scripture mixed with secular psychology or to send others to brothers and sisters who are well meaning, but are not depending on the word of the cross as the sole means of deliverance. We run to other sources besides Jesus because we have no confidence in the Christ who lives in us. We are so self-centered, prone to introspection, and busy looking at the frailty of our flesh that we forget to look at Christ who is our life, as our strength.

When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

If we are depending on our performance as the basis for our confidence, then we will continue to be a powerless body, because we are not depending on the strength and character of our head, Jesus Christ.

All through scripture, God constantly warns of mixture. When will the church of Jesus Christ realize that Jesus is the only answer? He is the only answer for every physical, emotional, and material need we will ever have. He is the answer as the written word, giving us guidelines for kingdom living, or as the word that dwells within us, giving us all we need for life and godliness.

When we make choices in our life, only according to what is comfortable or what seems right to those around us, we most likely will reap a decline in the quality of our life. Also, if we choose to deal with our soulish