8/29/26 New & Improved in I AM

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

The invitation of this verse is to anyone in Christ. As we have covered 8 previous teachings, this involves faith in the finished work of Jesus. More importantly it requires the blood he shed on the bleeding tree of calvary. These two are essential in unison with the grateful, not intellectual understanding of that the Son of God is the one who brought us out of love.

For those following the series & reflect back to last week we asked you to consider the question & intentionally evaded going further about the examination of our lives. Have we missed the purpose? Have we missed the reasoning for our very lives? This is the result of not seeking Holy Spirit & giving him the authority to mark our steps, assign the for the purposes of God daily. Before I go further, let me give you a consideration here. We are given free-will by our Creator And it is our choice whether or not we acknowledge him in all of our ways. You may have heard the phrase that God is in control, and that is true. We must keep into account That he is sovereign in spite of our free will. He will get done what he wants done with or without our participation. Further, he will get done what he wants to get done without our gratitude in service to him.

Part of what is unrecognized and the conversion experience emanating from the pulpits because it is the emphasis rather than the correct drive to create disciples that Harkins back to Matthew 28 there’s something that preachers don’t like to preach about if they are seeker sensitive. It is a truth that may disrupt their goals for the numerics that feed their ego or the amount of cash in the tithing pan or credit scent during and after their services. It is a reality that has to be embraced for us to be absolutely totally undeniably in Christ. This truth emanates from today’s scripture and unseen in this scripture is the acknowledgement of what I have said regarding the sovereignty and control of our Lord.

Odds are when you started your journey and came to the saving grace and surrender to the savior of the world you did this because of your recognition that all of your efforts only bring failure. The old adage is everybody wants to go to heaven nobody wants to die to get there & there is one way to get there. This one way as we have detailed just through the blood of Christ, faith and these things discussed in the previous installments. Once you recognize there’s a problem you have to find the solution and Jesus is that solution because obviously as we have also discussed in previous installments the problem is a spiritual problem.

I have taught in this ministry multiple times that you cannot solve a spiritual problem with physical solutions. The reasoning and the purpose that we seek in our lives can only come from our creator. To discover these, we must seek him but the only way to seek him is through his son. What is not frequently taught upon is exactly as I said what this verse entails and that is we become a new creation. Many ask why is that necessary why can’t God take me as I am? Yeah others ask what does that entail?

Even considering what was taught last week about how the Lord doesn’t see our wretchedness he sees the covering of the blood of his son isn’t that a new creation in his eyes? Let me have you considered this in reflection to these questions. If you go back much earlier in the series I spoke about the importance of Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit arrives once you are covered in the blood of the son of God. He indwells within you and I even gave all the purposes that he serves for being inside of you. Part of these we’re operational aspects in our lives that come with the daily surrender to Holy Spirit.

It is from the surrender that something grand really happens. There’s something that is evident maybe not to you immediately but it will be to those around you and those you are close to. Because they will see differences in the process of you becoming a new creation. If you want to walk in the will of God, fulfilling your purposes with reasons known sometimes to only the our creator you must surrender daily to the Holy Spirit.

This means you will change And some people cannot accept that. It’s not that God doesn’t accept you the way you are he does he just wants to make you better. He wants to make you more effective. He wants to make you truly in Christ. This means you are following the will of Holy Spirit and thus following Jesus day in and day out and can undeniably say you are in Christ. Jesus said those who love me obey me and that requires the daily surrender to the guidance the leading and the hope of Holy Spirit. This change begins to stir the very foundation of who you are.

You will begin to have values altered, priorities changed, you will shed habits detestable before our Lord. The change will show and your willingness to sacrifice and gradually increase your faith. The change doesn’t necessarily mean in an earthly sense in a physical sense life is going to get easier. No Jesus is going to put you into the fire to refine you to purify you to make you more valuable to the Kingdom.

• You may make new friends.
• You may go places that otherwise you’d never been.
• You will do things you never considered doing before.
• You will be gifted as Jesus was gifted to orchestrate and conduct on his behalf.
• You’ll be given favor, you will be insured that no matter what happens the Lord himself will provide all of your needs through his riches and glory praise be to Jesus our king.