e168 I am an Agent for Christ (and a faith that comes before) 

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.  

Season 3 Episode 168  I am an Agent for Christ (and a faith that comes before)

Here’s the gist, human. God gives us prompts for spiritual direction and learning. This one came from a new sister in Christ. A powerful beacon of the faith that comes before. A prompt to spend time on what it means to be “more than a conqueror” and what my identity in Christ means to me right now. It’s perfect timing, don’t you think, as we celebrate the day Jesus came to live among us? How does our identity in Christ help us navigate our personality, people and the path we are on? I share mine to prompt you to think about how you would describe your identity in Christ, this year, this Christmas. Because it started in a manger. E168. Thanks for listening.

This episode started with handwritten notes from a new sister in Christ, how God convicts us about his purpose, and what his Word says about being more than conquerors. When we think of our identity in Christ how does that embrace our personality, people and our path?

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.

The handwritten notes I received tracked questions like:

“Who am I?”

“Does what I believe about myself line up with God’s Word?”

And statements like:

“We should know and believe who we are based on what God thinks about us.”

With scriptural references to Paul’s Roman letter, chapter 8, and what got my attention was Romans 8:37 “we are more than conquerors” with a personal notation that “we walk in overwhelming victory.”

And a reference to the apostle John’s first letter.

Jesus is Our Sacred Ground

I was all in at that point. So I will start in 1 John. But not before I state a beautifully transparent truth illuminated by being connected to a new sister in Christ through my middle son. He shared her recent notes from her pastors’ sermons with me. When we connect to a new sister in Christ, or new brother in Christ, we start on sacred ground, right? It’s not that we discovered we share the same favorite color, or we both love to read. Or we share an insane love for tacos or pasta, or we both love to dance. Those things could be true, but not yet. The truth that must come before are not the things we love in this earthbound life. They do not contribute to an enduring foundation that gives life to, builds and sustains a spiritual relationship.

The truth that comes before, is this: that the most important presence in her life, is the same presence in my life. Jesus Christ. Same Lord. Same Savior.

The same resurrected guy who is changing me, is changing her to build our spirits into something that will endure in the presence of the Heavenly Father.

The Heavenly Father Jesus prayed to in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Heavenly Father Jesus honored in the desert with the devil. The Heavenly Father Jesus ascended to and waits with at his Father’s right hand in his glory Kingdom.

It all comes from a personal belief in the Son of God. The faith that comes before.

The apostle John states this in his first letter, thought to have been written between 85-100 AD. A simple declaration that rose out of John’s brave, compelling testimony that was manifesting its way toward John’s revelation of the end times through the beautiful Holy Spirit within him.

1 John 5:4-5

 

4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

So John refers to the battle in this world, the conquering of it by believing in the Son of God. That there was a battle that Jesus fought and won. The victory is in him.

We claim it when we proclaim him.

Consider this. The apostle Paul captures this battle in his letter to the Romans. It is thought he wrote this letter before visiting Rome, in 56-57 AD. He had not yet met the people he was writing to.

But he laid down the faith between them. The faith that precedes them.

Can we just take a moment to honor the timeline of these apostles’ lives? Romans written several decades after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. For Paul, 25+ years after the resurrection of Jesus, for John, his first letter 50+ years after he watched Jesus ascend into heaven.

Two men with an enduring faith.

Fierce, Fighting Words from Paul

What better testimony to the battle that has been won. Paul has such fierce, fighting words for us.

Romans 8:31-39

 

More Than Conquerors

 

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long; 36 we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

 

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

 

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

The First Fruits of the Spirit

The cool thing is that Paul answers to what he explains earlier in this chapter about living by the power of the Spirit, leaving behind a life in the flesh. He is working his way to how we live within the firstfruits of the Spirit.

Romans 8:23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

Romans 8:31 asks us to confront our response to the battle of the flesh, the battle this world serves us every day. Paul asks us, “What then shall we say?”

Paul is saying that the love of Jesus is a process and we live in the firstfruits of the Spirit, the beginnings of the power of the Spirit on earth. All toward the redemption of our bodies. This is why we are more than conquerors. Because we move beyond Christ’s battlefield. Into ours.

The Greek word hupernikao (hoop-er-nik-ah’-o)  means to be “super-victorious” or “overwhelmingly conquer”. It’s not just surviving but triumphing beyond what’s expected.

And this I love from Strong’s definition: to gain a surpassing victory, to vanquish beyond, i.e. gain a decisive victory, more than conquer.

How We Stand in Christ

What were the questions we started with?

“Who am I?”

“Does what I believe about myself line up with God’s Word?”

Let’s consider what is familiar. What we hear often and know about our salvation in Jesus Christ. How we became part of this divine family.

God reveals our identity in Christ in relation to our standing. That we go from the state of being a sinner, lost, condemned to the state of having divine status.

John 1:12 – “children of God”

2 Corinthians 5:17 – “a new creation”

Galatians 2:20 – “crucified with Christ”, with Christ living in us. 

Ephesians 2:10 – “God’s masterpiece”

1 Peter 2:9 – “chosen people, a royal priesthood”

God’s truth about who we are as believers. But this status must do more.

Romans 8:37 commands us to gain a surpassing victory, to vanquish beyond.

Because who we are, whose we are, determines how we act.

An Agent for Christ

If I had to choose one word, my own word for my identity in Christ, it would be the word “agency.”

Agency is defined, in general, as a capacity to influence your thoughts and behavior and have faith in your ability to handle this life.  The ability to make decisions and act independently.

Christ gives us agency to do things that seem beyond us. This is how I define freedom.

During the time in my life when I danced, taught students, and choreographed, I taught so many things that were about spiritual character. I have to say dance is spiritual to me, a deeply personal example of my body as the living sacrifice of my soul.  So think about bringing a student from fourth row to the first row. For those that have not had exposure to this type of scenario, a studio class has students in rows, typically going from the strongest in front to the weaker dancers in each successive row.

So I am asking you to think about bringing a student from fourth row to the first row. It was one of the powerful ways to strengthen a dancer, to build confidence. Because it is about the change that happens in a dancer’s mind that causes her to focus on what she can do, not what she sees others doing. And a better look at her reflection in the mirror. She begins to dance from her inner strength, her core. She becomes part of the music and muscle memory actually has a chance. Her core. Her character gets stronger. I rotated rows often. I pulled fourth row girls to second row, to first. I had students who were floundering in technique but quick to learn demonstrate the sequence. My goal was to get a student to choose growth over comfort.

Agency is about being free to do earthly things that exalt our Lord. He is the victor in all things. All of sudden it makes freedom a thing we want to reckon with. And our agency becomes the very resurrected soul of Christ.

In my professional career, supervising and helping develop fund development teams in the philanthropic world it was the same. Prompting colleagues under my supervision, and peer colleagues to find that agency to complete the challenges assigned to them. Providing well- timed encouragement that opens up a whole new world of freedom.

When we believe in the Son of God we receive an enduring spiritual status. We also receive spiritual purpose and gifts.

Agency empowers. But I need more. We need more. We need to be all in.

I am an agent for Christ. If I am to vanquish beyond, to more than conquer as Paul tells us, then my fight is not for me. I already believe. My fight is for others who do not yet believe.

Because when we believe, we become more than a believer who won a fight.

We do not sit around indulging in our spoils from the battle Jesus won.

It’s like this. I love action thrillers, especially those that involve the CIA, FBI, special ops kind of story arcs. So to think I am an agent for Christ, holding steady, holding firm to the authority his identity gives me, well, that is appealing to me.

I have the Jesus badge. I have the intel. I have the spiritual training to think quickly when things go dark. 

Because I am an agent for God’s glory. His light. His honor, his love and his Father’s Will.

Let us not forget that Jesus has always had a father. A Heavenly Father.

A Heavenly Father who gave his Son an earthly father.

So we could see his agency.

His footsteps.

His spirit.

I am an agent for Christ. Committed to all the divine sleuthing my Spirit can manifest in me. Through this world’s dark mental alleys, distracting side roads, and futile chase scenes that result in confusion, flesh wounds, and death. Or. Sleuthing that bears a second chance. For someone.

I am an agent for Christ. He gives me superpowers to see, to feel, to know.

He gives me the superpower of love to gain a surpassing victory, to vanquish beyond. Why? Because we did not do the choosing.

John 15:16

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

I love God’s Word dwelling within me. This is who I am.

His agent. Living in his name. For his glory.

Thank you sweet sister in Christ. I am grateful for your faith that comes before, for your pastors’ faith that manifests guidance and shepherding in your life through God’s Word.

The star of Bethlehem continues to rise for us, doesn’t it?  Come, baby Jesus.