Who you are in Christ..forgetting the past.

Who you are in Christ..forgetting the past

I want you all to understand what the Word of God says to each of you who believe in Jesus Christ.
For to long the enemy has had his way in convincing the body of Christ, that we are not in victory. The enemy has fought long and hard to keep each of us enslaved in our past. Tonight I’m here to set you free by the Word of God. If God wrote the Bible, then we should take it as truth, should we not?
Then how come many of us are living life far below what the Word declares for us?
This is not going to be a message of condemnation, but rather a pointing to the Light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What did Jesus do on the Cross? If we are accurately dividing the Word of Truth, then all of scripture will back up the message tonight.
I believe that Jesus conquered sin,.. did He not?
I believe that Jesus conquered death,..did He not?
I believe that He also conquered sickness..did HE not?
I believe that Jesus overcame Hell and the grave.
I believe that He made ALL things new.
These are all PROMISES made in the Word to those who believe.
The problem with us, is we live according to how we feel, not according to scripture.
If we have had a bad day, then we live according to our feelings, and everyone around us suffers with our bad attitude. We haven’t learned to take authority over our circumstances and declare the goodness of God in our lives. Instead of looking at all the great promises in His Word, promises we have been given, we gripe and complain about our circumstances and how we have no victory.
Well Jesus is called the High Priest of Our confession. If we are confessing things NOT according to the Word, then Jesus cannot make them happen. The Word says “let God be True and every man a lier.” This means if we are living and proclaiming things that are in direct contrast to His Word, He will not work against His Word. We have effectively shut Him out of that area in our lives.
My desire is for us as believers to begin to recognize who we are called to be, and how we are called to live; which is Free in Christ.
My Bible says, “that whomever the Son sets Free is Free indeed.” To that I say, “Glory Hallelujah!” and ‘Amen!’
Now from scripture lets look at the life of the Apostle PAUL.
In the book of Acts we read that Saul of Tarsus was very zealous for God. In fact he was so zealous he was attempting to erase (that means kill), every believer in Jesus from his area of influence, his ‘district’ and even areas outside of his district.
Lets read this account of Saul in action from Acts 7:58-8:1-3

Then in Acts 9:1,2. We read that he went so far as to get letters from the High Priest in order to arrest those in Damascus approx. 140 miles away. Now that is zealous! Even if it was misplaced.

I want you to notice that Saul was a man who persecuted Jesus. His people, the body of Christ.
He was present at Sephens death and imprisoned others.
Now I hope most of you realize that Saul became a believer, He had an encounter with Jesus that changed him. It not only changed him as a person, but also his name was changed..he became Paul.
Jesus says that all who believe in Him are given a new name on a white stone.
We have a new name and a white stone. New identity=new name.
Rev.2:17 White stone=clean, pardoned.
A white stone was used to cast your vote in favour of a persons innocence.
A black stone was used to cast your vote as guilty.


As a believer you have a new name, and are cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
Now back to Saul/Paul. We read that after he was healed, he immediately preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God....Acts 9:20-22.

Paul became a new creation 2Cor. 5:17 and he immediately began to proclaim freedom from the past.
Paul learned the secret to living in victory was believing what Jesus said. Jesus called Him a chosen vessel Acts 9:15. And in Acts 22:14-16 we read his commissioning. We became a ‘sent one’ an apostle.

Paul faced more challenges, persecutions and hardships, than most of us will, and yet he declared in Phill. 4:13, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’
What was Paul’s secret to living victorious? How did he strengthen himself, and have such spiritual success?
The secret is found in Phill. 3:13,14. As you read, notice the italicized words are not in the original text. This is how it reads, 'Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended (or laid hold of) but one thing, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.'
You see the secret..Paul was writing to us and revealing to us the one thing he understood or had mastered, or learned to do; this was to forget the past. Forgetting the past is the key to living in victory in the present.
The Word of God declares that Jesus is Faithful and True Rev 19:11. As our High Priest, Jesus has cleansed us from the handwriting of ordinances that were against us, blotting them out...Col 2:14.
Paul had to overcome his past and put it behind him, supernaturally declaring the promises of Jesus, the Word of God over himself.
God, once we have asked Him to forgive us of our sins, declares us to be cleansed. We become the Righteousness of God in Christ. 2 Cor. 5:21
1 John 1:9 says, ‘ If we confess our sins, He is Faithful and Just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.
These verses are key to victory. Believe what the Word declares to be true about all those who believe.
Do not let the devil deceive you into living according to your past. The past is dead and gone.
Paul had to overcome his memories of past sins, murder and persecution,. Jailing those who confessed Jesus as Lord and Saviour, overseeing the death of Stephen.
I’m sure the devil was trying his best to bring him into condemnation mode and disqualify him from his True Calling which he had received. Can you imagine how the devil must have been trying to remind him of his past atrocities, to make him feel unworthy to be a minster of the gospel?
Yet somehow Paul defeated those memories. He clearly found a way to live according to the gospel of Jesus Christ which he preached.. Freedom..the good news..where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty. 2 Cor. 3:17,18. We are being transformed into His image day by day as we look at Him in the Word, and in the Spirit. Word=Scriptures Spirit=Holy Spirit inspired visions and gifts
James 1:25 Look into the perfect law of Liberty. The Word of God which sets you free in Christ Jesus, for He is the Word. See John 1:1 ...In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
2 Cor.10:4-6, ‘For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.’

We don’t just sit around waiting for our thoughts to come into alignment with Gods’ Word, it is a battle. The devil would like to keep you under oppression and unable to accomplish Gods work in this earth. The adversary continually tries to keep us believers under a cloak of oppression and condemnation. But thanks be to God, Roman 8:1 makes this declaration, “Therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
We battle negative thoughts with the Truth of Gods Word. It isn’t enough to battle unscriptural condemning thoughts with positive scriptural thoughts. You must speak the Word of God over your life out loud. This stops your mind from thinking, and it has to listen to what your saying. So declare the Truth of what Gods word says about you!
I hope you’ve noticed most of these scriptures tonight were from Paul’s writings.
He knew the secret to living in victory. He took revenge on every memory, mental image, concept or imagination that contradicted what the Word of God said about him as a reborn, righteous, new creation in Christ.
If you want to live in victory then we need to begin to do as Paul did, take captivity every thought that exalts itself against Gods Word for your life.
We need to renew our minds through the washing of the Word.(Eph. 5:25,26.).
When we became believers in Jesus and made Him our King, our Spirits were reborn, however our minds are still carnal. Our minds need renewing in the scriptures because faith comes from hearing and hearing the Word of God. (Romans 10:17) Read your bible out loud! So your ears hear the Word of God, and your spiritual ears hear the Word of God at the same time. (If they are up to it do the test.. plug your ears and say Jesus out loud, the spirit hears!.)
Our mind will try to keep bringing us back into the same old cycles of abuse, sin and defeat. This is because it hasn’t been reborn as our Spirit has, if we don’t renew the mind with Gods Word, it will feed us with thoughts and fears from the past.
Our lives are shaped by what we think, which then translates into what we decide is right or wrong, and then our decisions lead us into what we do. These thoughts from the past then determine our future. If we continually dig up the dirt from the past then we will be buried by it.
Rather forgetting the past, we reach forth to those things which are before, I PRESS on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phill. 3:14.
We either live according to the Word or the whispering lies of the enemy. We need to wield the Power of the Sword of God, which is the Word of God.
In Hebrews 4:12 we read ‘For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of SOUL and SPIRIT, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Soul=thoughts of the mind, emotions, intellect
Spirit=the believer inside you, the Eternal life force keeping you alive
If we don’t use the power of the Word to supernaturally forget those things which are behind we will be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past again, and again, and again.
You must forget the way God forgets..Psalm 103:12..put it as far from you as the east is from the west. Root it our of your memory by the blood of the Lamb, and cleanse your conscience of it forever by FAITH.
Come into agreement with the Word, believe what the Bible declares about your past life. It is dead and gone! Every sin is cleansed! Everything the devil did to you and through is gone!
2 Cor 5:17. THEREFORE, IF ANYONE IS IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATION; OLD THINGS HAVE PASSED AWAY; BEHOLD, ALL THINGS HAVE BECOME NEW. AMEN!

Scripturally Seeking, but missing

John 7:37-John 8:1
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 
38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
40 Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, “Truly this is the Prophet.”
41 Others said, “This is the Christ.”
But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee?
42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”
43 So there was a division among the people because of Him.
44 Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
45 Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?”
46 The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!”
47 Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived?
48 Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?
49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”
50 Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, 
51 “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”
52 They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”
53 And everyone went to his own house.
John 8:1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus cried out with a loud voice. “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink."
His invitation stands today, as it did then. Drink deep, by faith. Jesus is and has always been the spiritual drink that satisfies. He sends the living water, the wellspring of Life, the Holy Spirit who fills and satisfies. It is the Spirit of God, that we are invited to partake of.
Back in Exodus 17:6 we find that Moses struck the Rock, and the water flowed out, enough for millions of the Israelites to drink and be filled. This first incident was a type for the suffering of Jesus. An Old Testament sign that pre-figured the bruising and wounds that Jesus was to suffer.
It was on the Cross that Jesus fulfilled the curse of the Law, and His blood flowed. Blood shed for all; everyone still has the ability to accept Jesus as their Saviour. Those that do accept Jesus, are cleansed in a River, a River of Jesus' Blood. Baptised with Him in Death and raised to Life in Christ. Amen.
As you look back to Numbers 20:8, we find that in this example, Moses was commanded to speak to the Rock.
verse8 “Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.”
This is also an example for us of what Jesus promised, "Ask of me and I will give you rivers of living water." In this type we see that all we need to do is ask. We need no longer beat against the 'gates of heaven' trying twist God's arm to give us something He already promised.
The first incident= Jesus on the Cross released the cleansing flood. He took away the handwriting of ordinances that were against us.
The second incident= Jesus releases the Holy Spirit upon those that diligently seek Him. Those that are diligentlyy seeking will find Him. By diligently seeking, I don't mean that we need to beat ourselves up trying to do penance, to make ourselves acceptable to God. We can never make ourselves acceptable by our actions, it was His actions that have redeemed us and made us clean. Our past failures or regrets have no bearing on our acceptance by God. God looks to see if we have accepted His Son's purchase of freedom for us. If we have, then we are accepted. Stop trying to gain what is freely given to you by God. This is the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. He has done it for us. Diligently seeking is our reading His Word, the Bible, then believing the promises written there. Receiving it as the Truth of God into our hearts. We are then able to meditate on those great and precious promises. The more we believe, then earnestly desire for them to be given to us; the more we meet the requirements for the overflowing power of the Holy Spirit to be released into our hearts and lives.
On the other hand the Pharisees of the day railed against Jesus. They struck against the Rock, and so missed out on the promisd land. Using the scriptures against Jesus, they actively persuaded people to put away His teachings as the ravings of a demoniac. John 7:19 Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keep the law? Why go ye about to kill me? John 7:20 The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee?
They also used scripture to try and prove that Jesus was not the Christ, the anointed one. See in John 7:52.. They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet."
The very ones who had been given the key, used it to lock up the people from entering into the Kingdom. In Luke 11:52 Woe unto you, experts of the law, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. Luke 11:53 And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things:
Luke 11:54 Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.
By this word we see that that the authority you submit to, rules you. We either are submitted to what Jesus and the Word declares, or we are submitted to others opinions, doctrines, or our own thoughts andbeliefss. Don't let these influences rule you, if the Bible says otherwise. It takes a renewing of our mind to live in the fullness of the Promises of the full gospel of Jesus Christ. Walk from darkness into the Light of all that is available. The Promises of God are Yes! and Amen! to those who believe. 2Co 1:20
Don't let your doctrines rule if the Bible says otherwise. Walk into freedom.
Submit unto Jesus, and His Truth. Speak to the Rock, and ask for the waters of the Holy Spirit baptism to be released into your life. Drink of that spiritual drink that only satisfies the soul.
It is the anointing that destroys the yoke. Free yourself from unscriptural teachings, or twisted scriptural teachings that rail against the Truth of Jesus' words. Today is the day of Salvation, ask Jesus to be you Saviour. Ask for His Spirit to indwell you, let your body become the Temple of the Holy Ghost.
1 Corinthians 6:19.
Be cleansed, be healed, be Holy. Stop holding onto your sins and let them go.
For those who have already accepted Jesus as Christ the Saviour; You are no longer held in bondage. Sin and sin-conscienceness of the past, must be destroyed from your life. Walk in the newness of the Resurrection Power of God. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me. see Romans 8:11
As a believer you have died to the flesh, so that Jesus may live in you. Romans 8:9
You have truly been raised from death to life. You have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light.
Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.
I urge you to go forth as the Redeemded of the Lord and let our Light so shine. Amen.