You Are More Than What You've Become: It's Time to Take Your Place

By Dale Thompson

How sweet is the taste of victory? Nothing like it. And yet, how bitter is the taste of defeat. The stark reality is it is our choice how we want to succeed in life. How do we live a continual life in harmony with God, a fulfilled blessed life, a life of not merely existing but a fruitful life leaving a legacy behind for others?

We are God’s own handiwork recreated in His Son that we may lead a wonderful life for good works which God predestined from the beginning of time. A path was laid out for us. By accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we walk daily with Him, living the good life (Ephesians 2:10.)

God says His people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). If only we would take God at His Word, place our faith in Jesus, embrace the whole of their existence to God’s divine will, our character would be molded to the sum total of Christ. A victorious life comes through prayer and study of His Word. There’s no way around it. We hold the key to every situation in life. He has given us the kingdom. This is the daily victory that overcometh the world, even our faith (1 John 5:4).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638141150

Book preview

1

You Are Loved, so Love

The cross changed everything. In fact, it changed so many things that most people don’t realize what really happened at the cross. Our Lord Jesus hung there, took the penalty for sin so that we could live for eternity with him. He did it in love because He loves us. Everything good comes from the cross. The greatest of all is love that changed the entire future of humanity and all of human forever.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him; and without Him, nothing was made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.

—John 1:1–4

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

—John 1:14

Jesus, the word, was born of a virgin, a sinless son of man and son of God, who lived a holy, loving life that passed every test of temptation.

And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

—Philippians 2:8

Jesus loved us so much that He chose to die so that we may live.

That through death, He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

—Hebrews 2:14–15

At the cross, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

—Galatians 3:13

Jesus restored our fellowship with the Father that Adam had given away in the garden of Eden. Jesus took away the authority of evil off our lives and released the spirit of love upon our lives. He opened the garden of Eden’s goodness to us again. Before the fall of Adam and Eve, they lived the very love of God unhindered until they disobeyed. Now that our love fellowship is restored with the Father, we too, through obedience—obeying God’s commandments—can live in God’s abundant blessing that will overshadow us. The saving power of the cross itself has released inside us, his love.

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

—1 John 5:3

As we walk in love, it releases the grace of God in every area of our lives. In doing so, He makes it a complete joy to be obedient to God’s commandments. With Jesus fulfilling the law, He brought us a new commandment:

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

—Matthew 22:37–40

The Apostle John wrote: And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment ( John 3:23). Jesus said in 1 John 14:21: He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

It is very clear in what Jesus said. If we love him, we will be obedient in what He tells us to do. The very evidence of our obedience will be the very visible manifestation of Christ in our everyday life. We will love in word, action, and deed. To love is to obey, as Jesus had done.

If anyone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word, which you hear, is not mine but the Father’s who sent Me

—John 14:23–24

Jesus is the word. The word is very much alive. The word is much more than what we know about it. It’s the word that we put into action. It is what we do with. James says, But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves (James 1:27).

He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as He walked

—1 John 2:6

If we love Jesus, we will, without a doubt, live as He lived, totally in obedience to the Father. Jesus lived love to the fullest. He was daily obedient to God in all things. During Jesus’s ministry, he said, For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak (John 12:49). Jesus lived to please the Father. Our life, as well, should be the same.

For I have come down from Heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

—John 6:38

To live in obedience to God’s commands enables us to enjoy God’s good grace that He has in abundance for us. We, his servants, represent all that He is in love that is released as we act on the word. Living a lifestyle of love is essential for a believer to continue in fellowship with the Father. God is love, and those believers live a life of love as God dwells in these people. Every step out of love is a step out of this vital living contact with our heavenly Father because you have stepped out into disobedience. Walking in love enables us to bear all the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22–23. When we have made Jesus our Lord and Savior, from that very moment, we were