Thoughts
on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 38
Michael’s book is
available through:
Abiding Life
Ministries International
Littleton, Colorado
Notice: this email is part of a BLOG, called Getting Out of the
Wilderness. Why a blog? So that multitudes can receive the weekly
thoughts I express on Michael’s writings in an easy manner.
I’ll
never forget learning that I am “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). That was just a short time after being Born
Again back in 1980. Wow! That was huge!
And
I also remember thinking of how many Christians I met in those first years that
didn’t know who they were in Christ.
Unbelievable! How could the
church let this be?!? Sadly, it is still
the same everywhere God has taken me to minister.
Michael
makes such a profound statement: “Jesus did not come, however, so we could
remain the same (as
before being Born Again)
and merely be sinners who don’t sin.”
Yet a huge percentage of Christians think that is exactly who they are.
Let
this be the turning point in this book to take you on the rest of the journey
to getting out of the wilderness…
YOU ARE ACCEPTABLE
excerpt
from pages 108-109 of SIW (5th printing,
March 1998)
excerpt
from pages 105-106 of SIW (14th printing,
March 2012)
(used with permission from
ALMI):
…wrong
last name…not my children.
One
day there will be a great feast in heaven, and those who attend will not do so
on the basis of their works, but on the basis of their birth. They must have the appropriate last name, “Children
of the Most High God.” Our
co-crucifixion, burial, and new life (Christ’s life) afford us that privilege.
We
must say it again: All that is true
about Christ’s life is true of the “new you.”
Do you see the importance of this?
Each inner life (Adam-life) has taken its own peculiar form…But each one
has the opportunity of exchanging what he has become for what Christ has always
been.
…Jesus
did not come, however, so we could remain the same and merely be sinners who
don’t sin. He took away the life in us
that desires sin and replaced it with a heavenly one – His very life. We possess a new identity; now we are saints,
not sinners. Satan’s definition of a
hypocrite and God’s are totally different.
Satan tells us when we try to act holy we are hypocrites, because we are
really wicked, vile sinners. On the
other hand, God tells us we are hypocrites when we sin, because we are really
holy saints!...Remember, we are not saints because of works, but by birth.
Saints…not
sinners. “What a wonderful change in my
life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart! I have light in my soul for which long I had
sought, since Jesus came into my heart!”…the opening words of a favorite old
hymn. How many Christians know the
words, but are not living the life…simply because they haven’t gotten the
foundational truth correct: every new Christian is a NEW CREATION. Not the same as before. Not the same ever again.
We
are not the same sinners who don’t sin (simply because we have become
Christians and people think Christians don’t/shouldn’t sin), but we are saints
who do sin when we step into the flesh.
BUT…a “holy but”…because of our new birth WE ARE ACCEPTABLE TO GOD. Hallelujah!
Note:
if you don’t have one of Michael’s Sidetracked In The Wilderness books,
please contact ALMI
(www.abidinglife.com) and get one today!
To access ALL past weekly
blogs, go to Getting
Out of the Wilderness by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com
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NOTICE: another blog on Michael Wells’ book, My
Weakness For His Strength, called Living Life With a Capital “C”. You can
access by logging onto www.leemccm.blogspot.com
Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
leemccm@gmail.com
1737 CR
2051 Nacogdoches, Tx 75965 936-559-5696
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