News from Potter's Wheel Ministries

This week our devotional will point to a truth found in the Word of God that is studied the least in subject matter by the average Christian; and because they fail to study this paramount teaching, it keeps them confused about what they can know from the Gospel that would bring blessing and total victory into their life. This truth of course that we are mentioning is our righteous position and privileges that we now have in Christ Jesus. Therefore, the failure of knowing your rightful place with God becomes the most destructive perspective that a person can develop in their heart. Hopefully, we can clarify some things here that will take you over the top.

In Genesis the first chapter, God is seen as making man in His own image and likeness. This perfect image of course, is our original design from the beginning of time, which had the fullness of God dwelling with man, and man being complete in Him. Get this straight, God did not change us beyond this original form, we changed ourselves as we looked away from Him, only to become interested in what we wanted to be like. Therefore, after many generations of self-pursuance man has completely lost any idea of what a god man even looks like. There have been scores of religious attempts over the past generations to reinvent man, but it has had no success in of itself. Thus, religion has been a pitiful substitute for our original design in the beginning.

Most Christians will agree that the Bible is filled with mysteries that are hard to understand, and because of this we see the many denominations formed around us to accommodate these mixed views. Prayer lines are filled every week with believers searching to know answers to the uncertainties of life events that seem to have no explanation for the outcome being experienced. Isn't it sad to have Christian's that are very much confused about what their own Bible means? I suppose this seems even stranger for the many outsiders who observe this confusion among those who are supposed to be the enlightened ones. The greatest tragedy of life has to be when a believer in Christ fails to recognize who they are because they fail to read the Bible. Therefore, what is this mystery that supposedly keeps alluding man from knowing? According to our next verse in Colossians it is this:

Colossians 1:27 (KJV)
27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

The mystery now revealed is this, "Christ in you!" Under the old dispensation or covenant, these things were hidden until their appointed time. Yet, once the Son of God entered into this world and gave His life as a ransom for the many who would be saved, these mysteries had now become known to His heirs. The Scriptures tell us that we have an unction from the Holy One that we can know all things (1 John 2:20 KJV). Compare this divine position that we now have as a believer in Jesus Christ to one of the prophets and his position under the old covenant.

Daniel 2:47 (KJV)
47 The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.

Daniel 5:12 (KJV)
12 Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.

Here we see a prophet of God that had extraordinary abilities because of the Spirit that was upon him. There were none who could compare in all the wisdom of men of that day, to the ability that Daniel demonstrated. However, this dispensation of time that we are under holds a much better covenant with much better promises (Hebrews 8:6) than Daniel had which affords all of us the grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Jesus was the exact image of the invisible God, being the firstborn of every creature (Colossians 1:15). Therefore, to get the revelation of Christ in you, is to enter the realm of sonship with all the benefits of who He is, working Himself out into the open for all to see it in us. In other words, you can't have Christ in you, and not have have what He is in you! If Jesus is in you, then Jesus can do the same works through you that He did while He was here in the flesh and even greater works because He is still doing miracles today. Look with me at Colossians chapter two and let's dig a little deeper on this subject of what we now have in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 2:1-3 (TLB)
1 I wish you could know how much I have struggled in prayer for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for my many other friends who have never known me personally.
2 This is what I have asked of God for you: that you will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love, and that you will have the rich experience of knowing Christ with real certainty and clear understanding. For God's secret plan, now at last made known, is Christ himself.
3 In him lie hidden all the mighty, untapped treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

There it is! God's secret plan revealed to man. God intends for you and I to grasp the full assurance of understanding about this mystery now revealed. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Jesus Christ can do all things, and no one has a problem believing that for one moment, but Scripture also says, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. The question is, do you really believe that beyond just knowing it says that in the Bible? If your thought is on having the Scriptures recorded in your head correctly then you will always be short of seeing anything happen. It's not the words on paper in that book called the Bible that you are to memorize with a conceptual understanding, but it is to know the One who Authored it, and to know intimately that He resides on the inside of you.

Romans 8:29-32 (KJV)

29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

We are predestined to be conformed into the very image of God's holy Son Jesus. You and I are personally called into this divine likeness where we are justified by God Himself, whereas, He also glorified us through His only begotten Son. What seals the deal is the permanent sacrifice of Jesus who God the Father delivered up on our behalf that He might give us all things through Him! I don't know about you but this completely jazzes my world, to think that God would send His holy Son to die for my sins, and then lavish me with the Gift of Christ in all that He represents as He takes up residence within me. This is huge! This completely changes how I see myself, and what I am to be in my new created form as a son of God. Our vocation in what we do for a living is not our identity. Whatever you have grown up as seeing yourself as defined by others is not your true identity. Our identity is solely in Christ our Lord who perfectly reflects in us our true nature in all its glory. Our vocation is nothing more than a place that we are at in life at this moment where we simply reveal His glory for others to witness.

Ephesians 4:1-7 (MSG)
1 In light of all this, here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk-better yet, run!-on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere.
2 And mark that you do this with humility and discipline-not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love,
3 alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
4 You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly.
5 You have one Master, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.
7 But that doesn't mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift.

If we don't get this revelation of Christ in us, then we will spend a lifetime working to try to keep the Lord's commands through mental discipline. This is an impossible feat to accomplish when we digress to only understand the things of God through the intellect and not by the Spirit. On the other hand, if our revelatory eyes of faith open to see the King of kings is dwelling on the inside of us while perfecting His works through us outwardly, then this Bible which at one time was so full of mysteries, will suddenly be opened with all clarity of revelation. Victory is in the revelation of who the Word of God says you have in you performing the work, not the accumulation of just knowledge of where a certain Scripture is located within the Bible. The Scriptures teach us that knowledge puffs up. Living and doing what the Bible teaches is to have the blessed Savior revealed in us!

1 Timothy 3:16 (TLB)
16 It is quite true that the way to live a godly life is not an easy matter. But the answer lies in Christ, who came to earth as a man, was proved spotless and pure in his Spirit, was served by angels, was preached among the nations, was accepted by men everywhere, and was received up again to his glory in heaven.

Godliness is not a work of man through his many religious practices. It is the sole work of Christ in us. Our answer on this business of being godly, truly lies in this One who dwells in us, the hope of glory! Thank the Lord, the mystery has now been revealed to the true sons of the most high God.

Mark 4:11 (KJV)
11 And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:

Christ is in us, we will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. Christ in us, and we will raise the dead. Christ in us, we will speak to mountains, and they will obey. Christ in us, and we will do even greater works! The secret plan of God is now revealed to them that are His. Therefore, rest in the power of who it is that is in you, Christ our redeemer. Amen!