First Person Thinking
Dearly beloved of God, the Apostle Paul, at God’s direction wrote: "I was crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by believing concerning the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Think about God’s revelation to you in the first person; God your Father is speaking directly to you. It is absolutely true, dearly beloved.
You say it, dearly beloved. “It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me! The life I am now living in the flesh I live by believing concerning the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” It is as true of you as it was true of the Apostle Paul.
God your Father is speaking to you, so say what He says about you. “As I have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so I will walk in him.”
“It is Christ in me, the hope of glory!” At times we baulk at this glorious reality because of the stinking thinking of the old nature of the flesh. It is corrupt. The old nature thinking of the flesh dwells on your past, on your failures, or on your shortcomings, on your past sins. This is carnal thinking.
God, our Father says, “The thinking of the flesh is death, but the thinking of the spirit is life and peace. The thinking of the flesh is hostility against Me. It is not in subjection to the reality of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus that I created in you. Beloved, those who are in the flesh cannot please Me, but YOU ARE NOT IN THE FLESH, but IN THE SPIRIT since the spirit from Me dwells in you.”
Dearly beloved, we do please God when we believe what He accomplished in Christ, and He created in us. He freely gave us all things with him. Think according to what He says, not according to what the flesh says.
The Father says, “Since Christ dwells in you, the old nature is indeed dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of My justness. It is no longer you that live, but Christ lives in you! You are complete in Christ Jesus; you have all in all. Don’t listen to your fleshly carnal mind any longer; listen to Me.”
We do not get a new mind in the new birth so we must renew our minds to think according to what God says we are to think. We have to change our thinking; it must be renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him Who created the new man, where Christ is all, and in all. “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me!”
Do not listen to the old man according to your former manner of life, which is corrupt according to deceptive cravings; be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and clothe yourself with the new man, which was created in righteousness and true holiness.
Beloved of God, say, “The life that I now live in the flesh I live by believing concerning the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Say, “Since Christ lives in me, I am a new creation. The old things passed away; behold, new things have come, and all of the new things are from God.”
“I am God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus.” Say it, dearly beloved of God.
“My Father has freely given me all things with Christ. I received newness of life in the new birth.” Say, “I am a child of God, an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ. I will acquire the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has blessed me in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm!” This is a reality, so say it.
When you think as your Father wants you to think, it will transform you. “It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me.”
Say, “As I received Christ Jesus the Lord, so I will walk in him. I am complete in him who is the head of all principality and power. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. It is Christ in me, the hope of glory. I am no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit since Christ dwells in me.” This is our new normal since Christ lives in us.
Think of yourself as the Father wants you to think. Believe it, and become accustomed to thinking as He would have you to think. Say what God your Father says about you until it becomes normal and customary to think this way, dearly beloved of God.
God created the spirit of life in Christ Jesus in you, so think about yourself in terms of the complete new birth reality that He created in you in the first person, dearly beloved of God. Thinking like this is life and peace, and it pleases God.