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Fully Engaged
8 Plays9 months ago
Vernon shares part 3 of the critical elements to walk free in Christ. In this episode, Vernon looks at engaging our mind, heart, words, and our body to experience Christ in His fullness. Victory in Christ is not just some intellectual exercise, nor is it a purely emotional trip. God desires that we fully engage. We hope this is an encouragement for you and will help you take just one more step to experience Christ in your journey.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Walking Free'
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This is your host Vernon Terrell with Grace Ministries International and it's time for Walking Free. And welcome back this is Vernon and I am
Meeting In-Laws after Two Years
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recording this podcast, looking out a window in a hotel room in Florida, as I am
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traversing the uncharted waters of meeting my in-laws for the very first time in person live. And yes, it has gone well. It's been actually a great experience. And yes, I was married. It'll be two years this March and I met my in-laws in or on the screen through FaceTime.
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a couple times, many times, but never in person. So they lived, or live in Arizona. They came down to Florida on one state over, so we made the trip to Florida to all connect, and it's been a great experience. So you can keep praying for that. So as I drop this podcast and publish it, you can keep praying. I'll still be here for the remainder of this week, and if you watch it after that, well, still pray for us.
Self-Identity in Christ
00:01:34
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It's it's been a fun journey, but today I want to actually just finish up a Part three of this series of really walking free and we looked at earlier in this back in December You look in the mirror and that was I highly recommend you go back and listen to that if you haven't already and so we looked at
00:02:03
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look in a mirror, and I just love that scripture on that we are transformed as we look in that mirror and we see past our own behavior, past our own body, and we really look and see who we really are in Christ. And that is so, so important.
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And I encourage you to do that. And the next one that we looked at was, you have everything you need.
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Another important concept in this as we build this idea of really walking free in Christ is that you have everything you need. The enemy wants to make you think that you lack. You lack something, and therefore he has the answer for you, and that's just not the case.
Spirit, Soul, and Body Identity Discussion
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Finally, what we really want to look at today
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is this idea of fully engaged. And what do I mean by that? Well, we can just jump right into it. We know in 1 Thessalonians 5.23 our makeup, how we're designed. We are designed as spirit, soul, and body. Paul said, I pray your spirit, soul, body be preserved, blameless into the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And when I look at spirit, soul, body, I think of it this way. And as I've taught for many years, I've taught it with an equation format, if you will. The spirit equals who I am. We're spirit being. And it's spirit, soul, body, not body, soul, spirit. The spirit equals the I am. That's who I am. That's my identity. The soul,
00:04:04
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is who I think and feel I am. And the body equals how I behave or act. And that three-fold part, that three-fold being, mirrors the Trinity.
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And the spirit is who I am, the soul is who I think I am, and feel I am, and that's important. And the body is how I behave. And as those who are born in Adam, we're born dead. And that doesn't mean we lack a spirit. That simply means we lack life. We're still spiritual beings.
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spirit, soul, body. We just lack life. That's what being dead in Adam means. There is no life because life is only found in God, in Christ. And when we receive Christ as our Savior, when we receive His forgiveness in life,
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That old self, that old man as it's called in the old King James, that old self or the old nature is crucified with Christ, dead, it's buried, and we're raised up a brand new life, a brand new spirit, and we have the Holy Spirit who comes to indwell us.
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We are given life in Christ, everything that we have in Christ.
Engaging Faith Beyond Belief
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Everything that is in Christ is ours. We have every spiritual blessing. We're a saint. We're chosen. We're holy and blameless. We're adopted. We have forgiveness in Christ.
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Already, all forgiveness, it's ours in Christ. We have redemption. We have God's grace, an overflowing grace. We understand the mystery of His will. We're God's own possession. We're alive. We're His showcase. We're His workmanship. We're raised up and seated with Him. We are God's household. We have access to the Father. We have peace, and we have an inheritance that will not ever fade away.
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so many things that we have in Christ. But let me make this statement.
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you will not experience a consistent victory on an intellectual level alone. You must fully engage with your whole being. And I think often in this Western Christianity, even in our own grace history and exchange life history, at some point it got to this intellectualism where, you know, you just need to believe
00:07:06
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and understand certain truths. Just believe it, believe it, believe it harder, believe it. And everything's OK. Well, you know, in my experience, I know folks who believe and understand, they hear and believe the truth of our identity, of our forgiveness, all of that, yet they're not experiencing this consistent victory, this consistent peace. How about you?
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Does that ring a bell maybe with you? I think there may be some things that we are missing. Let's take a look at Colossians chapter 2, and we'll start in verse 6. We'll go all the way to 10. Colossians 2, 6 says, Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord,
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So walk in him. And how did you receive him? Well, by faith, right? How are you to walk in him? That's right, by faith. So in the same way you received him, in the same way, walk. All right, we're off to a good start. Having been firmly rooted. You're firmly rooted. You're not going anywhere. You're in Christ, you're firmly rooted in him. And now,
00:08:32
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being built up in Him. We're growing. We're learning. That's part of being human, right? We're growing. We're learning. We're being built up in Him and established in our faith just as you are instructed and overflowing with gratitude.
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I think we're missing a point here, so I want you to hang on to that. We're overflowing with gratitude. We miss that often as we read these verses. We know we're to walk by faith, and we believe it, we trust it, we're firmly rooted, we're being built up, we're growing in our faith, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it, Colossians 2.8.
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that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in him,
Completeness in Christ and Deception
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in Christ, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. That's powerful.
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And how about this next part in verse nine and 10. And in him, you have been made complete. And he is the head over all rule and authority. You have been made complete in him.
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And he is the head over all rule and authority. And Paul begins to really tease this out even more as we get to Colossians chapter three. And if we look at Colossians chapter three, I think of it like a Matrix or not the Matrix movie. I love that movie. But but as
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a matrix that has in the first column, here's the scriptures, the next column, here's the word engage. Think of engage. And I'm gonna look at your mind, heart, at your body. What are you gonna engage? What is the scripture telling us to engage? And then the action.
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And if we look at Colossians chapter three, and we start in verse one, if then you have been raised with Christ and you have, if you're a believer, you've received Christ, well, your old self was crucified and you've been raised up with him, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your what? Minds.
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on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. He said, you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. In fact, when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. And that's what I always, when we talk about identity and knowing who you are,
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When you die and you see Christ face to face, you're going to see Him in all His glory. Guess what? You're going to see yourself in all of your new identity, in all of your righteousness, all of the holiness that He's given you.
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Why wait? Why wait till then? Why not see it right now? Look at the mirror I was talking about. See it now, don't wait. The engage here is engage with your mind. And I would also say with your heart, but engage with your mind. Keep seeking those things above. Set your mind on those things that are above.
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And then we get into some kind of wild stuff here, Colossians 3 verse 5.
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in the New American Standard says, consider yourself as dead too. And OK, most other translations will say like King James may say the word mortify. It's this idea of to put to death. The English Standard Version says put
Renewing Actions and Thoughts in Christ
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to death. Therefore, what is earthly and you put to death what is in your earthly members
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And that's an interesting phrase, is it not? I thought we died with Christ. Yeah, but our body didn't. Our spirit, an old man, or an old nature died, but we're still in this body. And this very active voice, aorist tense, this singular point,
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says, put to death. Therefore, what is earthly, what is in your earthly body, and he says this.
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Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. Could this be possibly what is coming at us as the power of sin? Could it be these human desires that God designed and these human needs that God is designed to fulfill in his way yet the enemy twists for his own purpose?
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to fulfill outside of God's design? Put to death that sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. You say, well, wait, how do I do that? I've already died in Christ. I've got this body that I'm living in. It's got some walk-a-doodle stuff sometimes going on, doesn't it? It feels like it, doesn't it?
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Interesting if you read Romans 8, 13, and you think, well, how do I do that? Isn't that always the question? Okay, great, Vernon. How do I do that? Well, Romans 8, 13 says, if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. I believe
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that when you're walking in the spirit, by definition, you can't be walking after the flesh. You can't be in these activities. They're mutually exclusive. So how do you put to death or kill these things? Simply walking in the spirit.
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You don't try to beat down these desires and put all these rules around it and try to beat them all down. No, that's, that never works. Try it. If you need to try it, try it doesn't work, but some people need to give it a shot. Uh, once you're done, how about just walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. How about Galatians five, Romans eight.
00:16:20
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That's how it's done. And that's why I believe Paul starts out with, set your mind on the things above. So when on our engaged chart here, and it continues, by the way, in verse seven, in those you too once walked when you were living in them, when you were in Adam,
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That's just how you lived, and that's on account of all this stuff. The wrath of God is coming because of sin, and it's like God's wrath is coming on you, but God's going to destroy this whole earth and create a new earth. That's coming eventually. But you once walked in these, you had no choice. That's just part of who you were in Adam.
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And verse 8 says, but now, what's the but now? Well, you're in Christ. But now you need to put them all away.
Embracing New Identity in Christ
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That's not who you are. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth.
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All of that. So if we look at verse, and I'm jumping ahead, but in verses five through seven, we're engaging the body and the heart. And he's going down in verse eight and nine, we're engaging the heart in our mouth, the words coming out of our mouth. He said, put aside anger and malice and slander, abusive speech, don't lie.
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So we put those aside, how? Well, by walking in the Spirit and entrusting all the situations, all the things that come up and attack us and attack our mind and deceive us, and we entrust those unique situations to the Lord, and by faith we walk according to the Spirit.
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He's going to tell us a little bit more of, well, what's the how to here? But first he tells us the why. Why do we put all this stuff aside? He says, look, don't lie to one another seeing that you have already put off the old stuff with his practices. You that stuff died. You already put it off. It's gone. That sin generator is its history.
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Now, yes, you've got old patterns and muscle memory and old thinking and all that stuff that's going to be renewed, but that sin generator, that old self is gone. You've already put it off. And you've already, verse 10, put on the new self. That's the why. It's not you.
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It doesn't fit. It doesn't look good. It's just not you because you've already put on the new self, which by the way, is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Your new self has a creator and you have brand new life, a brand new identity, and you've got the Holy Spirit in you.
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Why? Because it's not you anymore. And then he says in verse 12, put on then.
Engaging Heart and Mind in Faith
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So he tells you to put off stuff, put the death stuff, put off. He says it's just not you.
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And we read how Paul gave us all kind of illustrations on how you do it. Well, it's walking in the Spirit, and he tells it here too, the same thing. He says, look, put that off. It's not you. Here's what you do. Put on, verse 12, as God's chosen ones. You are chosen of God.
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He says, holy and beloved. That's who you are. That's the real you. So put on compassionate hearts. Put on kindness. Put on the outside.
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That's humility and meekness and patience, bearing with one another. If one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So you also must forgive. Why? To be forgiven? No, you're already forgiven. Because that's just who you are. And above all these, put on love.
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That's engaging the heart. In verse 12, we put on compassion and kindness and humility. What are we engaging? The heart. In verse 13, we're bearing with one another and forgiving one another. We're engaging the heart. In verse 14 and 15, we put on love. And then he concludes that in verse 15.
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and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful you're engaging the heart. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. Do you see a pattern here? Something that I believe we're missing? Verse 16 continues,
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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your what? Hearts to God.
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Isn't that amazing? We let the Word of Christ richly dwell within us. We teach and build up each other with music and songs and grateful hearts. Verse 17, and whatever you do, uh-oh, now we've got a doing going on. Doing is not bad. Doing is good.
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And whatever you do in word or deed, so you're engaging your words, your mouth, and your body. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. And then what? Giving thanks to God, the Father, through him. You're engaging your words, your body,
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and your heart, you're giving thanks to God. Here's the lie, I believe. The enemy wants to minimize the importance of either your heart, your mind, your body, or your words. Let me repeat that. This is a lie. The enemy
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wants to minimize the importance. It's just not, oh, that's not all important. That's the lie. Wants to minimize the importance of either your heart, mind, body, or your words. The truth is that God desires to express his life through every aspect of your being. He wants to express his life through your body, through your mind, through your words, through your heart,
00:24:24
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But when we make walking free or walking in the spirit just an intellectual exercise, I think we're missing the boat. I think the Lord wants us to really dig deeper. It's not behavior modification and it's not logical mind games or just positive thinking. It is truth thinking, but I think it's more than that.
00:24:53
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I think it's really engaging our heart and knowing the heart of God. It's dealing with the shame that happened at the garden. We all have shame. And it's bringing that to the light and letting go of the shame in the light of His love and compassion and grace.
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And it's hard. It often takes events that bring us to a point. Now we use at Grace Ministries, we will use the term brokenness, and no, God's not out to break the new you. We know that.
00:25:38
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But I do believe God is trying to break the things that we depend on for life. And he's saying, Vernon, why are you holding on so tight to that? That is not gonna give you life. That old pattern, that old way. Trying to hide and run and avoid. Let that go. And entrust all of that to the one who loves you the most.
Fully Engaged Faith Journey
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I don't know what that means for you. I don't know where you land on all of this, but let me encourage you to be fully engaged with your body, with your mind, with your heart, with thankfulness and gratefulness, with humility,
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When God points out those areas of shame where you're hiding or running, pause, open it up a little bit, take a look at it, see it for what it is, and let it go. Whatever that means for you,
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And I believe as we go through that and we really fully engage, we will take deeper steps and I think more effective steps in walking free and experiencing this victorious life that God has graced us with. So I encourage you to not just talk about the heart and not just talk about
00:27:27
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dealing with those heart issues, I encourage you to ask the Lord what is your next step and start walking.
Closing Remarks and Contact Info
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You've been listening to Walking Free, a production of Grace Ministries International in Marietta, Georgia. For more information, go to our website at gmint.org. That's gminc.org.