Tree of Life Blog

One of the biggest mysteries is that in light of all that we have said on identification – that we died with Christ, that we have been buried with Him, that we are one with Him in His resurrection power – is why do we forget it so easily.

Maybe none of you do, maybe it’s just me. But I have known that I am in Christ for 31 years. I have had this revelation that I am one spirit with Christ since 1995! I remember hearing the preacher tell me who I was in Christ in an ice rink in Scotland, and remember how powerfully knowing my identity changed my life. Since then, I heard Kenneth Copeland in Birmingham, England preach on righteousness for over two hours, and I have heard Andrew Wommack preach on spirit, soul and body over and over and over. This truth that I am one with Christ has changed my life, changed my ministry, influenced everything I do at home and at work and around the world. It’s one of the greatest, most precious truths I know.

Yet, I have found that I can get into a situation where I am not glorifying God in a particular situation or doing something that is not His will or plan, and the reason is – when I objectively look at the situation – I have forgotten my identity. Why is it so easy to forget?

Ever done something that was selfish, and you then go to repent before God and you don’t really want to! There’s only one reason why you don’t want to – you forgot who you are.

When we know who we are in Christ, we can work miracles, we can love the unlovable, we can walk in victory in every storm, move every mountain and sleep at peace in the boat! When we know who we are, we do not live under shame or condemnation. We live in the revelation of His grace and His work, and it’s life-changing. But yet, at times, I have felt condemned, felt useless, felt like I could never walk in victory, even though I knew I was one spirit with Christ.

Ever been frustrated that your prayers aren’t answered? That God isn’t coming through. That you cannot get it right, cannot get anything right? The reason is you forgot you were dead and buried.

Jesus took your old nature, your old desires, your old heart, your old spite, selfishness, silliness, shame and doubts, nailed the whole lot to the cross until it was dead and then buried the lot! You died with Christ! You have been buried with Christ.

But you forgot. I forgot. We all forgot. Why is it so easy to forget? Because we try and fight a problem rather than proclaim our victory. We like to struggle and fight, we like to feel we had something to do with the win, but we didn’t – all our victory and triumph comes from Him.

If you are struggling with a sin, struggling to repent – struggling to even want to repent – try thanking God right now that you were buried with Christ, that the problem is already in the grave, you are in Him, one spirit with Him and you neither desire to sin or need to feel ashamed. You tell yourself the truth, tell satan the truth, and you start saying this boldly – your torment will change. The truth will set you free.

You were buried. Speak it outloud – I was buried. No more weeks and months of battling a dead body, just remember it is dead! Believe the work of the cross. Consider yourself dead to sin! You are a new creation. You do not need to fight the dead body of the old creation, it’s in the grave! Just walk away from that attitude and live in newness of life. That is the truth and that will set you free!

You died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3.3)

So, we have established that we died with Christ, and that is very exciting news. We were crucified to our old life and old nature and old desires. The death of your old nature is not a future event, it’s happened. Don’t tell me “I need to die to this”, tell me “I am dead to this”. Say what the Word of God says: “I died and my life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3.3).

Now, the problem is most Christians (definitely most, more than half) have very little if any idea that they died on the cross with Christ. The reason we baptize people is to REMIND them that they died! That’s why we get people and put them inside the water – you were immersed into the death of Christ. And then you were buried with Him!

Romans 6.3 says we were baptized (immersed) into His death. It then says we were BURIED with Him through that immersion. We were buried with Christ. You died with Christ, but Paul finds it important to also let us know that we were buried with Him.

Why is this so important? So you know that when you became a Christian, your old nature did not just die, it was put in the grave. For you to go back to that nature, to live from that nature, you are grave robbing. You are descrating the grave and going back to something that is not just dead, but dead and buried.

When we baptize (immerse) people in water, it is a picture of them being baptized (immersed) in the death of Christ. So, we don’t leave them in the water, we bring them out of the water as a picture that they are resurrected in Christ too (Ephesians 2). But you also are supposed to remember that part of you is left in the watery grave – part of you is gone for good. The power of sin over your life, your spiritual death, your oneness with the curse of the law is gone for good. DEAD and BURIED! You are no longer under law, you are no longer the old man, you are a new creation. The old nature is dead and buried. Don’t go trying to make it a zombie, leave it in the grave!

The early church would only baptise in running water so that they could tell people the water has washed their old nature away – you have died with Christ, but you were buried with Him.

Imagine, you are fighting your sinful urges and they are dead! You are fighting the impulse to be selfish and cruel and bitter and lazy and rude – it’s already DEAD. DEAD AND BURIED!

What is really happening when you are tempted to – for example – not forgive someone and nurse a grudge. It’s the sin of bitterness and criticism, yes, but the root sin – the root of all sin for a born-again, resurrected, new creation, washed in the blood Christian – is unbelief in your death and burial in Christ.

You don’t feel dead, so you doubt it. You don’t rationalize that you are dead, so you doubt it. You don’t experience that kind of death and entrance into newness of life, so you doubt it. The devil whispers that you are still a sinner, so you doubt it.

What you need to do is stop fighting the branch of the thing and stop trying over and over to forgive someone! What you need to do is go to the root and stop doubting that you are dead to that. You are not a bitter person, you find it easy to forgive, you are dead to that grudge, dead to that need to get even, dead to that desire for revenge. You have been crucified with Christ – so stop fighting a battle you have already won in Him!

God’s Word is true. When you believe it, it works. Every time. And it says you are dead to the old nature. So believe that. You are a new creation. Believe that. You are resurrected above that sin. Believe that.

Don’t tell me – my old life is not dead, in fact it is very much alive, it will not stay in the grave. NO IT IS DEAD AND THEREFORE IT CANNOT GET UP! THE OLD IS GONE!!! God has given you a brand-new nature. Your old nature is buried in the grave.

I know Christians who are so confused by this. They want to serve God and want to do selfish, mean, salacious, cruel things as well. So they ask and pray for God to crucify them, but that kind of prayer is fuel for unbelief. You are failing to appreciate and believe what Christ has already done.

You do not need to be crucified. You do not need to be buried. You need to live in the power and life of the crucifixion that has already happened. You need to believe you are dead, buried and resurrected! You do that and you start to see how free you are from that dead old binding up mean nature, you will move into a whole new realm of living for God in a place of rest.

Before you were born again and became one spirit with Christ, so identified with Him that the Scripture can boldly say “just as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4.17), we were dead in our sins and transgressions.

The person who has not yet received Christ is by their nature selfish, sinful, at war with God, opposed to God and cannot do anything to please God. When you are born again, the Father looks at your new spirit and is well-pleased! You deep down in your spirit only want to serve God, love God, obey God, believe God, extend God’s kingdom, give God honour, serve God’s people, find your place in the church, and be a zealot for Christ, the church, the gospel and world mission.

But have you noticed ever, since you became a Christian, that you still want to sin. If no one told you that would happen, like no one told me that would happen, it comes as a huge disappointment the first time as a Christian you really want to do something other than serve God, in fact you want to do something mean, unkind, selfish and opposed to God – just like you weren’t even a Christian! That’s not a fun place to be, and when you know you are identified with Christ, it sometimes does not make sense. But I want to give you some real hope and some practical wisdom today – firstly wanting to sin is not sin. It’s temptation not sin, and the two are different. Let’s unpack this:

Part of you wants to obey and please God, and part of you wants to ignore God, disobey Him and do whatever you want. Now – those two ideas cannot be merged or reconciled – they are exact opposites. You try and live both of these and you will be confused, ineffective in life, unhappy and self-conflicted.

So what do we do when we want to sin? We need to do three things when we want to sin:

1. Remember Jesus Christ knew this would happen, and prepared for it in advance. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He did not just die so you could be forgiven of past sins. You did not change from sinner to forgiven sinner, you changed from sinner to saint. In your spirit you identify with Christ, you are as holy, as pure, as full of faith and life and glory and power as Jesus Christ is. The power to walk above sin is INSIDE YOU, you can resist temptation – you have a new nature. You are not a hybrid old and new creation, you are a new creation – and you are identified with Christ.
   
   “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin” (Romans 6:6-7)
2. Realize that a temptation is not sin. You identify with Christ BECAUSE you are being tempted, not despite it! Hebrews 4.15 tells us something about Jesus you have to know – He was “tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin”. There were times Jesus was tempted to sin – He might have wanted to smack one of the disciples’ in the face for being so unsupportive, He might have wanted to give up while carrying the cross and just lie down and give up, He might have wanted to kiss one of the ladies who were supporting his ministry, loving Him and serving Him. I know for some people that sounds silly to say, or even disrespectful, but Jesus was tempted in all the same ways you are. I bet when those women ministered out of Jesus from their substance He was tempted to not tithe and just keep all the money. I bet He was tempted to fire Judas a few times. I bet He was tempted to call down fire on a Roman soldier or two! I bet He was tempted to drink a little too much wine, eat a little too many of the pastries with the honey in! He was tempted in EVERY WAY, just as we are. Identifying with Jesus does not make you immune to temptation, because Jesus Himself was tempted. As long as you are on earth you will be tempted, and satan will actively encourage that in our lives. The devil knows where you are most vulnerable and will ensure that you are tempted on earth!
3. Knowing that we are tempted because we are like Jesus and knowing that our old self was crucified, the final step is this: believe boldly and unashamedly no matter what temptation is coming your way, you are dead to sin. This is not a matter for discussion. You are dead to sin, it’s in the Word. Whether you feel dead to sin, or feel that you really want to sin, you are dead to sin. Whether you feel dead or not is irrelevant, you are dead to sin. You dying to sin is according to the BIble as much the truth as the truth that Jesus died on the cross. You can boldly laugh at the sin you are tempted to commit right now and say “I AM DEAD TO THAT, I AM IN CHRIST AND I AM DEAD TO SIN” – do not let feelings cover that, you may feel like drinking alcohol, but you are dead to it! Your old nature is dead! You are crucified with Christ. That’s not a feeling, it is reality. No matter what your feelings are – there is no temptation, no sin, no behaviour, no attitude that you could ever have that undoes what Christ did – my favourite Scripture to stand on in these moments is 2 Cor. 5.14:
   
   One died for all, and therefore all died
   
   All died to sin. That includes you. You are part of this. You have been crucified with Christ and are dead to sin, and you should believe that today! When Jesus died on the cross, the old you died with Him, and the power of sin over your life is broken – even if you are being tempted today!

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ…” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)

Selah!

Now we have been talking about IDENTIFICATION WITH CHRIST for many weeks – the challenge now is that you need to believe it to receive it. The blood of Christ, by itself, has cleaned us and removed every barrier to access God and His kingdom.

Now there is only one thing for us to do: BELIEVE what Jesus has done on the cross. Have faith! Only believe!

I often have people contact me and ask me “how can I get near to God”, “how can I be healed, “how can I be prosperous”, “how can I live the abundant life” – I will say why are you asking that question, and their answer is something like “I don’t feel close to Him, I don’t feel my prayers get answered, there is a blockage” – and often these people are scratching their brains for weeks and months trying to work out what it is.

Sadly, many of these people have come to other advisors before me, who have told them they need to do this or that, they need to break a generational curse, they need to repent of all sin, they need to sort this or that out.

But that is not the issue. The blood has covered us, redeemed us from every curse, rescued us from all sickness, forgiven us from all sin and given us all free access to the Father. Your only problem is unbelief. You were born again, transferred from Hell to Heaven, transformed from sin into righteousness just by believing. So you can receive your healing, your answered prayer and access God by believing.

Well, my last pastor told me I had to give £300 and pray 3 hours and I would break the curse and be back in God’s presence and I did it and it worked. What happened is after you did it, you believed that you would be back in God’s presence and so it worked. You could have believed, accessed the presence of God – still gave the £300 and prayed 3 hours, but you would have then given in faith, and prayed in the presence of God instead of praying to try and get into the presence of God. I know which one is better!

You were not there at the crucifixion, you weren’t even born then, so you have never seen it! But you can believe it – believe what JESUS has done and then receive all the benefits from it!

Why not believe you are forgiven right now? Why not believe you are healed right now? It’s not your works, it’s HIS BLOOD and HIS WORK. As you believe you are forgiven, you will be free from shame and come to a place of peace. As you believe you are healed, your body will respond and you will start seeing, hearing, moving again, the pain will leave and you will start to do what a healthy person does! It’s an awesome deal.

All you have to do is believe! Only believe! Only believe! You were made acceptable to God when Jesus died for you and that’s the true – thank Him right now for what He has done (thanksgiving is an expression of faith) and thank Him until you start feeling joy knowing that God has accepted you through Jesus Christ.

“I have complete confidence in the Gospel; it is God’s power to save all who believe. For the Gospel reveals how God puts people right with Himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. As the Scripture says, ‘The person who is put right with God through faith shall live!’” (Romans 1:16-17 GNB)

When I fly to another nation, I need my passport. When I arrive at the airport they check my passport – they are looking for two things: firstly, is my passport an official genuine government document and not a forgery, secondly, does the image of me on the photo look exactly like me. If those two things match, all will be well and I will be boarding the plane. if they think the passport is a forgery or the photo does not look like me, then I may be in trouble.

If someone looked exactly like me and had my official document they could take my place and have access to my flight.

Now, here is the good news – because you are born again, because you identify with Christ, because you are one spirit with Christ, because you – in the spirit look identical to Jesus – you have access to everywhere He has access to. You have the same access to the Father He does because no one can tell the difference between you and His picture in the passport! You are one with Christ.

The way God chose to let us know this powerful truth is that when Jesus died on the cross, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. That curtain kept God and the people separate and only one man could enter in, and only on the right one day of the year. But when Jesus died, and shed His blood, we now have been made in His image, and now have access to God. We can live continually in His presence, identified with Him, because the blood of Jesus cleans you from all sin and leaves you looking just like Jesus.

You have official citizenship of Heaven and a passport with Jesus’ image in it, and you look like Jesus, so start going places by faith – start praying some big bold prayers, start worshipping freely, start enjoying God’s presence. Before you were saved, your sin put you on the equivalent of a no-fly list – you couldn’t go anywhere, but now you have free access to the throne of God, free fellowship with God, and access to Christ’s inheritance! What a deal!

When we hear the phrase “eternal life”, there are two images that Christians have. The majority of Christians sadly have the wrong image. They think of eternal life being on the other side of this life, being something you get in Heaven. It’s like there is a big gap between us and eternal life and when we die we cross over this big gap and finally get some eternal life. Some Christians even believe that they need to earn eternal life as a Christian by behaving well and getting a good report from Jesus on their Christian life and then get into Heaven on that report. That is the exact opposite of the gospel.

What does the Word of God say?

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (1 John 4.15). The moment you declare and announce Jesus is the Son of God, God Himself lives in you! That’s eternal life.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5.24). If you hear the gospel, and believe in the Father, you have eternal life. Do not try and earn, and do not wait for eternal life – you already have it! You have had it since you heard and believed and declared!

The truth is that the moment we get saved, we have eternal life. Our spirit is transformed into one spirit with Christ and the substance of that spirit – the stuff it is made out of – is eternal life. We are one with Christ, that is what I am trying to get through to everyone in this series on identification. I don’t need to earn or wait for eternal life, I have it right now – I have all of it right now. I have the same portion of eternal life as Jesus Christ has – that’s my identity and my identification.

You are now made of the same substance as God! You are one with Him! Yes, when you die, you will go to a place called Heaven, you will go to be with Jesus, but right now – you are in Heaven and right now you are with Jesus! That’s some good news right there!

The moment we are born again, we are one with Jesus. We are the same spirit as Him, we are one with Him, just as He is so are we!

There are many facets to this wonderful diamond of the new birth, but today I want to focus our attention on acceptance. You are one with Christ, so you are right now as accepted as Christ. You are as righteous as Jesus, as acceptable to God as Jesus Christ is. We can fellowship with God, no matter what we have said and done (or not said or not done) as easily as Jesus can.

Many people disagree with that, not because of their great Bible study, but because they just don’t feel accepted. They doubt God’s Word, they doubt God’s truth and they doubt God’s goodness to them. They doubt their identification with Christ. But here is something I want you all to realize – no matter how much you doubt, your doubts cannot change the truth.

Right now I am typing this blog on a laptop, it’s a Lenovo laptop and I am sitting on a grey sofa, my favourite piece of furniture in my house. I might doubt that I am using a laptop, I might doubt that I am on a sofa, but how I feel, how I doubt, all of that will not change what is true, and what is true is the laptop I am using is a Lenovo and I am sitting on my sofa. It’s the same in the spirit – you are righteous, you are accepted, you are acceptable. It doesn’t matter what you feel, the reality, the truth is that you are accepted. Your feelings do not result in the truth of yoru acceptance changing.

The truth is that Jesus Christ of Nazareth died your death on a cross, shed the most precious blood that there ever was so that you would no longer be a reject, but be accepted in the Beloved. You moved from separated from God to united with God. He paid the price for you to be totally forgiven, utterly accepted and completely righteous. That’s the truth.

A facet of the redemptive work of Christ that we do not focus on enough, in my opinion, is that Jesus died firstly for His Father, and secondly for us. The Father wanted to reach out to us, to embrace us, to love us, but our nature was a sin nature. Before the redemptive work of Christ transformed us into righteousness, Jesus took the full punishment for our sin.

We have grown up in a generation where the world, and many parts of the church – due to a misunderstanding of what grace truly is – have not realized how serious sin is. God cannot just close His eyes and forget we sinned and simply forgive us. Sin caused all of humanity to fall short of the glory – the life of glory and love and increase and peace that God designed us all to have. It twisted humanity, it broke the entire planet and brought death into every part of our lives. Grace is not magnified by ignoring sin, grace is magnified by realizing how horrific sin has been to God and to us. We cannot actually realize or grasp how much sin has cost us all as the human race.

Sin is so bad that God cannot ignore it or fail to punish it. Sin separates us from God, from Heaven, from life and ties us to God’s righteous punishment and judgment.

When we realize this we will celebrate – the grace of Jesus on the cross has completely made us perfect. You weren’t even close before then. What you might have claimed to be small failings are sin before God, and only through the substitute of Jesus taking our place can we be right with God.

What has this got to do with our identity? Well, it means our identity is rooted in how righteous we are, but it is rooted in how righteous we are in Christ. Our whole identity and whole right standing before God comes from who we are in Him, and it is healthy for us to never forget that. Look at how Peter expresses this:

¹⁸ knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. ²⁰ He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you ²¹ who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

(1 Peter 1.18-21, ESV)

Through him we are believers, not through ourselves. So in all our understanding of identity, understand the source, and be grateful to God for making you what you are in Christ.

“God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

God loves you so much that He sent Jesus to die for you on the cross. Christ died for you. That needs to seep into how you see yourself.

You see you know that you have sinned, you know that you have fallen short of God’s glory, you know that you have failed to meet your own standards let alone anyone else’s. You know you needed to pay a steep price to both be forgiven and to break the power of selfishness and sin in your life.

The good news is that you could not pay that price, but someone who could did – Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The price He paid by dying on the cross took all the punishment for your sin, paid for your forgiveness, your freedom from sin, and brought you into His family, and made you part of the Kingdom of Heaven!

You do not deserve this at all, but God loved you so much He did it even though you did not deserve it. You deserved judgment and punishment, but God loved you so much He did not want to judge you or punish you, and sent Jesus to die your death to make salvation possible for you.

Sometimes people cannot work out how Jesus’ death makes God able to forgive them? Surely there must be another way people ask. Can’t God just choose to forgive?

Paul answers this for us clearly:

God offered Him, so that by His death He should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in Him. God did this in order to demonstrate that He is righteous. In the past He was patient and overlooked people’s sins; but in the present time He deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate His righteousness. In this way God shows that He Himself is righteous and that He puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.” (Romans 3:25-26 GNB)

God is love (1 John 4.16) – so God can only love us. But God is also righteous, He cannot allow things that are imperfect into Heaven. So, until sin is dealt with you cannot rightly be allowed into Heaven or allowed to have Heaven on Earth. But Jesus put us right with God, now it is the right thing to do for God to allow us into Heaven and allow Heaven on Earth for us right now.

Jesus said “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14.6), that is because no one else ever took the full punishment for your sin, became sin with your sin and made you right with God. But Jesus did and He did it because the Father loves you and the Son loves you. Make that part of your identity today, because it’s true, and it’s more relevant than what any family member, any school teacher, any neighbour, or anyone else has ever said about you!