Jesus does not want to simply come into your heart, He wants to give you a brand-new one. The truth is, the Christian life is not a changed life, but an exchanged life. Jesus said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever would lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35). We are not called to “incorporate” Jesus into our lives as some sort of additive or attachment; we are called to give our lives to Him and receive His life in exchange.
The church needs to learn how to stand up in the resurrection power of Jesus. We are a third-day people who have received the very Spirit of God so we can advance His kingdom on the earth. We cannot hope to ask God to come into one part of our life for this to happen. We cannot hope to make the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of our God and His Christ without this truth: We are one with God right now!
It’s truly the reality of our union with Him that will release the power of God on the earth. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.” First John 4:17b says, “as He is, so are we in this world.” The life of the believer does not end in union with Christ; it begins there. This life we live is about growing up in the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ (see Eph. 4:13) so that we can release His presence on the earth.
I invite you today to ask Holy Spirit for a revelation of the exchange that happened at your salvation, and I pray that you will be overwhelmed to the point of overflow.
For more on this “great exchange,” listen to the full episode of The Faith-Rest Life on the Charisma Podcast Network here.