Friday Open Heavens Devotional - New Life In Christ

<sup>New Life In Christ - 14 November 2014

MEMORISE: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17. Continue...</sup>

READ: 1 JOHN 3:7-9

7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 CHRONICLES 1:1-4:23 and PROVERBS 26:1-14

MESSAGE

There is a nature that is of the Earth and there is a nature that is of Heaven. Since the fall of man, the earthly nature of man has become corrupted and therefore is greatly under the influence of the kingdom of Satan. Characteristic features of this nature are: wickedness, moral perversion – sodomy and all sorts of indecent sexual practices, deception, fraudulent practices, poverty, ignorance, sickness etc. A person not in Christ carries this polluted nature around and is capable of manifesting any of its devil influenced character, irrespective of social and educational status. However, when a person comes to Christ, the power of the cross of Christ destroys this nature of sin and the person is given a new nature which is of God; a nature whose feature and expression include a holy character. The character of this new nature is described in 2 Peter 1:4:

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

When a person truly gives his or her life to Jesus, some things occur spiritually in his or her life. The Bible says that fellow is delivered from the power of darkness and is translated into the kingdom of God’s Son (Colossians 1:13). Also, he or she now has Jesus dwelling in the inside. Jesus in Revelation 3:20 promised that, if you open the door of your heart, He would come in to your heart. Not only these, 1 John 3:9 reveals that the seed of God is now dwelling in you if you are in Christ. Also, with Jesus now dwelling in you and He being light, there would be no place for darkness. Darkness is the sphere of operation of sin and demons.

It is not enough to know all these. The onus is now on you as a child of God to assert yourself based on the power of God that is now at work in you against the old nature of sin, Satan and the sinful and worldly influences around you. Hence, the Bible says you should be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, so that you would be able to stand your ground against the enemy of righteousness (Ephesians 6:10-13, James 4:7).

PRAYER POINT: Pray to God to be more like Jesus Christ.