Walking in the Spirit, Daily Communion, and Maturity
Recently I was meditating on what it means to really know and grasp one’s true identity, to fully walk in the Spirit and not succumb to the dictates of the flesh. What I discovered was that if we actually do walk in the Spirit, in daily communion with Christ, we will be living out our identity and fulfilling our destiny. Because Jesus dwells in me and my spirit is connected to the Holy Spirit, all I ever need lies within me already. The power, anointing, authority, grace, love, wisdom, understanding, essentially all the gifts and fruit I’ll ever need lies within, as a deep reservoir of riches waiting to be accessed. Jesus is my all-in-all and resides within me. He is everything, supplies everything, and He is my El Shaddai, my all-sufficiency. Why would I ever look elsewhere for fulfillment, or rely on myself? It is a principle in scripture that what we behold we become, or what we focus on we become. So, as I gaze upon the Lord, I become more and more like Him, and this begins the transformation process to become more and more like Jesus. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” II Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV). What a thrilling promise to us!
Hebrews 3:6 “But Christ as a son over His own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end,” and v.14 “For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.” Our identity in Christ may be launched at the point of salvation, but we must hold fast until the end, and not settle for merely stepping our toe over the threshold of the house just to get to heaven. There is a maturing process that takes us from Christian infancy to maturity as sons in the Kingdom of God where our true identity emerges and can be seen by others in the natural realm because we reflect Jesus, shining through us. What an awesome goal and challenge to every believer who wants to press on to the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We must run our race until the end, and not give up or grow weary in the process. Galatians 5:24 says “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” so this is not easy and does require some sacrifice on our part, but God’s grace is sufficient for us to keep advancing.
Charles Spurgeon wrote these very reassuring words in 1857: “The nearer you live to Christ, the more you imitate Him, the more your life is conformed to Him, and the more simply you hang upon Him by faith, the more certain you may be of your election in Christ and of your calling by His Holy Spirit. Men who doubt their calling and election cannot be full of joy, but the happiest of saints are those who know it and believe it.”
Now we catch a glimpse of our spiritual life, identity and destiny in Job 38:1-7 when God is rebuking Job for his sad and sorry state after listening to all his judgmental friends, causing Job to be feeling a wee bit sorry for himself. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” God asked him…”When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Who are these “sons of God”? Many have believed they are angels, but the Hebrew definition of the word “sons” is “ben” (Strong’s 1121), or a “builder of the family name” but angels don’t reproduce, so this verse must refer to sons as sons (or daughters), not angels. Our spirits are eternal and were alive in heaven before being sent to the earth to be born in the natural. God set eternity in our hearts long before we were ever born to our parents on earth. “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts…” Ecclesiastes 3:11. No wonder we all have a “God-hole” in our inner-most being that cannot be satisfied with anything the world has to offer, but only will be fulfilled and satisfied when we are reconciled to our Father who created us, and formed our spirit to commune with Him. This fulfillment becomes more amplified as we become the true dwelling place, or Sukkah, for the Father to come and remain in us – that is the real destiny for all believers, to Tabernacle with the Father. Most are not willing to pay the price, but God’s grace is there for us if we will press in to Him.
God doesn’t promise us things that are impossible to accomplish, but gives us His grace to “put on the new man, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” Colossians 3:10. This new man represents our identity in Christ, irrespective of our past, so we must let go of the past and not keep brooding over it since we are crucified with Christ – dead to sin, and dead to the former things. I love the Amplified Version of Romans 7:22-25: “For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self (with my new nature). But I discern in my bodily members (in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh) a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs (in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh). O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from the shackles of this body of death? O thank God! (He will!) through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”
This is why “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” Romans 8:1-2. Rejoice! There is so much hope for us in the entire chapter of Romans 8, I recommend that you read and meditate on this chapter. If we are walking in the Spirit, we are abiding in Christ and living out our true identity. We generally get our identity from our fathers, and this chapter spells out how our heavenly Father explains this process; v. 14 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God, v.15 For ye did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’.”
Galatians 4:4-7 “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father’. Therefore, you are no longer a slave (servant) but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” Romans 8:17 declares the same.
If we know who we are in Christ and cooperate with Holy Spirit to nurture and develop our identities in Him, we will grow and mature into the stature of the manifested sons of God. All of creation is groaning for this to happen. Romans 8:19-22.
RISE UP SONS OF GOD!
Written by Karen Sommerfeld-Forge
Prophetic Teacher, Limitless Realms Int’l Ministries
