WHO ARE WE (REALLY)?

As I travel and preach the revelation of Jesus, the truths that we cut our teeth on, I have become aware of the necessity of teaching these basics again and again. I am referring to scriptures such as Romans 5:21 that says that we were made the righteousness of God in Christ. This truth brought me from religion to life in Christ. I had preached for twenty years and didn't know I was righteous until I heard Kenneth E. Hagin teach this. I was still trying to manage my conduct in a manner that I thought would please God. Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” I had always felt it was hard to please God. However, it was at the altar of this verse that I knelt and yielded to the truth -  it's not hard, it's impossible! It was here He revealed to me that Jesus is His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. As the mirky waters of religion cleared and I began to see Jesus, I understood God is pleased only when I trust in and have faith in what He did for me in Jesus. Without faith or trust in what Jesus has done we can't please God. He isn't wanting to be pleased as much as He is desiring to be trusted. When I teach these truths, I hear voices once again trying to muddy the living water. Those voices sound like this: “Pastor Bill, we agree with you that this is our legal positioning. Yes, that's our position in Christ legally but not in reality”. However, that's not what Jesus said about us who have by faith accepted His finished work. Listen to His words: John 14: 20   “At that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” These are red words in the Bible. That's not where I am legally but somewhere else in reality. That is where God Himself has placed me. That is my dwelling place. ALL of life flowe from that Oneness, with the very life of Christ Himself in me. My righteousness is His, my faith is His, my life is His, my victory is His, my health is His, my prosperity is His, my eternal home is His. Oh, it makes me want to SHOUT ‘I am His and He is mine’! When we know this, and cause those entrusted to our teaching to know this, then, and only then, will we all know the truth that sets us free. Then we will hear testimonies of faith working from an understanding of His love for us. We now become capable of loving because He has loved us. His love for us is now in us and we walk by His love. We have a hope that doesn't make us ashamed. Romans 5:5 (KJV) “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”  I love that word ‘given’. Nature provides many examples of this incredible discrepancy between who we appear to be and who we truly are. Consider the caterpillar. If we brought a caterpillar to a biologist and asked him to analyze it and describe its DNA, he would tell us, "I know this looks like a caterpillar to you, but scientifically, according to every test, including DNA, this is fully and completely a butterfly." Wow! God has wired into a creature looking nothing like a butterfly a perfectly complete butterfly identity. And because the caterpillar is a butterfly in essence, it will one day display the behavior and attributes of a butterfly. The caterpillar will mature into what is already true about it. So it is with us. God has given us the DNA of righteousness. We are saints. Nothing we do will make us more righteous than we already are. Nothing we do will alter this reality. God knows our DNA. He knows that we are "Christ in me." Now He is asking us to join Him in what He knows is true. It is hard to grasp how incredibly this would free our world, our children, our friends, our church, our neighborhood, our businesses, ourselves—everything—if we choose to believe it! We, like the caterpillar, are maturing into what is true about us. The reality of who we are in Christ is manifesting in the believer. Lives are yielding the fruit of righteousness. The life of Christ within is causing the old to pass away and the new to take its place. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV) “Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” The best thing you could do at this moment is to put down your iPad, turn off your computer, lace up your shoes, and take a long, slow walk through the neighborhood and imagine. I can hear Bro. Happy Caldwell teaching "you will never have it if you can't imagine it." Imagine such a life. Once you can imagine it, you can start to consider the reward of it. Once you can consider it, you can begin to believe it. Once you can believe it, you will receive faith for it. Once faith comes, you can begin to enjoy it. Once you can enjoy it, you will find others to join you. Once someone joins you, others will follow. And once others follow... well, you get where this is going. I hear our founder’s voice, Dr. Harrison, telling us to pastor supernaturally. I would like to ratchet that up a bit and say let's live supernaturally! 2014 is the year of the greatest revelation of Jesus the world has ever known: the revelation of our Oneness, God in Christ, Christ in you, and you in Him. -Pastor Bill Annis, FCF Canada, President