Deciding to Live a New Normal Lifestyle in Christ
In 2 Peter 3:11, the apostle Peter asks the question, “What kind of people ought you to be…”? Ponder that question from your old world view first and then look at it from a Christian perspective. Once you've experience what the world has to offer and are still searching for something more, you reach a point where you finally realize the limits of your own use of control, and you see and feel your need to cry out to the Christian God, an all knowing, all powerful and all loving Spiritual being. You look to Him as your Higher Authority, as the one who can satisfy your soul. It's God who fills the empty space in your heart. In Matthew 7:7-8, Jesus says seek and you will find me. When your belief causes you to seek to know about the Triune God, your transformation begins (Ephesians 4:24,
Galatians 5:16-18, 5:22-23, 1 Thessalonians 5:23).
The gift from God is two-fold; it's Christ in the flesh (our example to follow today) and His Holy Spirit living in you (securing eternal life (Romans 10:9-13, John 10:10, read more at https://www.gotquestions.org/the-gift-of-God.html). Giving up an addiction comes with a necessary identity tradeoff; your old addictive personality for Christ’s identity in you, which is a spiritual gift that enables you to be Christlike in this physical world. (The seed is the Word of God planted in your heart - a part of man's DNA - and when you allow the Holy Spirit to control your physical life too, the Seed is activated, producing some "30, 60, or 100% return" in this world along with everlasting, eternal life (Matthew 13:23, also see Appendix 1M).
Once you receive Christ, the Seed of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is given to you to cultivate it (to work it out) so that with time, you can grow a harvest of right and good actions because your faith waits in hope and rejects fear the spirit of fear so that by your D(ABC's) you demonstrate E (Genesis 8:22, Mark 4:28, John 1:12, Galatians 5:22-23, James 3:18, Matthew 25:14-30). What activates the gift of your Holy Seed is your decision to honor and trust God above self and family because of His character and love for you (before, during, and after your transformation). It’s your voluntary daily choices that determine the action steps you take that leads to the outcomes you get in life. As a Christian you will still experience cognitive dissonance when you choose Christ as Savior, but don't make him Lord of your life too. To maximize the two-fold gift of God, today, requires you to, first, make a decision to believe and second to take action on that thought. Your willingness to change shows your gratitude for God's gift (2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 3:17, 1 Chronicles 16:34, Galatians 4:19).
To honor God by making Jesus Christ Lord of your life shows others your highest Authority. This means He is your first priority. You need to make a conscious decision to remove yourself from the number one position (or your spouse or family) in your life, not just add Him to the list, but prioritize him even ahead of yourself (Luke 9:23, Galatians 2:20). It means to willfully turn old thinking habits and desires into God honoring decisions that are seen through your behaviors. You do this by deciding to allow Christ to rule over your desires. In essence, it's agreeing to restrict your free will to live inside the boundaries of God (see Appendix 2H). Rid yourself of the anxiety derived from Christian cognitive dissonance by making up your mind to change your thoughts and behavior to practice the self-discipline necessary to cultivate the harvest of righteous behavior (2 Timothy 1:7, Hebrews 12:11).
2
In the Old testament, Jeremiah 8:10 says that “the joy of the Lord is my strength”. In the New Testament, Jesus tells us that this joy is the Holy Spirit and describes what a great value it is (Matthew 13:44-50). Accepting God's Holy Spirit is likened to finding and wanting so badly to buy it that you go home and sell everything you have just to possess it. This is a word picture to communicate the value of the Holy Spirit operating in you and demonstrates that God is your highest priority in life, even over your concern for your own basic needs. Your trust in God to provide (Philippians 4:19). Your decision to use God's gift is what gives you the confidence to leave fear and anxiety behind so you have the courage and stamina to act. When your Divinely empowered actions line up with your Divinely inspired goal, God fills you with His peace while you work at it (Isaiah 26:3, Hebrews 13:6, Philippians 4:6-7).
Your hope acts when you believe
The choice to express the Holy Spirit is up to each individual born again believer. Spiritually you are both justified and sanctified upon acceptance of Christ, but physically you reap what you sow (Galatians 6:7-9, 2 Timothy 2:20-22, Hebrews 10:10). Your new A,B,C's reveals what your heart believes. The is the Apostle James argument; the proof that your heart has been cleansed by God, is seen (James 2:14-26).
-
Do you physically act consistently with your spiritual identity in Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2)?
Hope
Romans 13:15,
12:12, Psalm 84:11
Control anxiety by knowing, trusting and hoping in your relationship with Jesus Christ.
A confident attitude acts on faith
(Hebrews 11:1, 6:12, Romans 8:28).
Your Journey
The effects of a drug addiction has physical consequences, not spiritual (Jeremiah 4:18, Galatians 6:8). To avoid these consequences in this life, a physical transformation of habits (in both thoughts and deeds) must accompany the spiritual decision to accept, believe and hope in Christ; the living example of God (Colossians 2:9). It is when
you make daily decisions and follow up with like actions (that are consistent with the character of God) that you achieve rest for your soul as you walk along the highway (Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 37:7). Trusting God opens up a new pathway through life, a "highway to holiness" (Proverbs 15:19, Isaiah 35:8, 60:21, Luke 8:15, Matthew 13:23, John 17:19, Ephesians 4:1-3, 4:21-25, Philippians 4:19). Choosing God's highway through this life leads you away from the goal of self-gratifying behaviors and towards the goal of inheriting the Kingdom of God (1 John 2:3, Colossians 1:9-10). As you travel, you will realize that you can experience "eternal life" on earth by practicing what you know (2 Peter 3:18, Hebrews 6:1, Ephesians 4:13, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Philippians 3:12-14).
Hyperlinks used in graphic:
External links to scriptures: 2 Peter 3:18, 1 John 2:16, John 17:17, Romans 6:19, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, 1 Peter 1:2, John 17:3, Psalm 50:23, John 15:8, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, John 3:3-5, Galatians 3:25-27, Ephesians 1:13-14.
At the point when you have consciously surrendered your independence (by turning to Christ as your Savior), your sins are no longer recognized by God. (You are immediately covered by Jesus sacrifice so you become holy, spiritually and can begin to learn God's ways, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.) This begins a new direction for your life and you learn how to walk along the "highway to holiness". God rescued all of us from the penalty of sin so to give us a fresh start in life and to point us towards the way to a full life in Christ. God wants us to taste and see that He is good (Psalm 34:8) and that He gives us everything we need to "continue in Christ"- remaining dependent on Christ as you journey through life (2 Peter 1:3, Colossians 2:6, 1 John 3:24, https://www.gotquestions.org/abide-in-Christ.html). This is how Christ becomes both Savior and Lord of your life. It's God's two part gift given to you freely and with respect for your free choice.
Your gratitude for His Love encourages your obedience to His principles and sets you free!
God is love and He modeled and taught that love is demonstrated, not simply verbally communicated (John 15:4, Galatians 5:22, Romans 13:10, 1 John 3:4, 3:18, 3:23, 4:9). Because your heart has been purified by God's Spirit, you are capable of walking out God’s definition of love (if you willing go through the sanctification / the change process so you learn to implement new habits; Ezekiel 36:26, John 14:21, 15:12). This is how you glorify God (1 Corinthians 6:19, 10:31, Colossians 3:23-24, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Galatians 1:10). You are experiencing eternal life (knowing Jesus) on earth as well as when you get to heaven (John 17:3, Matthew 6:10). The more you learn about the character of the Godhead, the more you love. There is no fear or apprehension in God's definition of love as Romans 12:9-21, 1 Corinthians 13 and 2 John 4-11 point out. Choosing love is visible through your actions, while fear stifles the expression of love.
Freedom from an unhealthy addiction requires giving up to get. Are you ready to exchange (to replace) unhealthy addictive behaviors with healthy, God-driven habits?
Read on for Another Way to Look At It
Becoming a Christian means a 180-degree change is needed to take place in your physical life, not a 360.
It means once you get to the cross, you keep moving straight, in the direction of eternal life. So you learn as you go to continue to choose to trade old worldly ways of thinking and doing for new Godly ones. If you get to the cross and, instead, you do a 360, you are saying that while I’m grateful for God rescuing me and equipping me with the power of the Holy Spirit to change, I’m going to go back to my old ways. It can be likened to returning to the same street that has “the hole in the sidewalk” or as Jesus said, a pig that returns to eat his vomit (Proverbs 26:11, 2 Peter 2:21-22, Hebrews 6:4-6). This is an abuse of God's mercy and grace (Romans 6:1-2).
The Word of God is the seed that, as it grows, it continues to strengthen a Christian’s s heart (Jeremiah 15:16, Matthew 4:4; Hebrews 5:12-14; 1 Peter 2:2-3). Once you have received and believed what Jesus said in John 16:33 (“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world”), you are armed with the Holy Spirit to walk out the journey of faith which is your sanctification (Romans 6:19, Ephesians 6:13-18)!
A person is saved by faith alone (justification), but this saving faith is never alone (Galatians 3:11, Ephesians 2:10)! When the Holy Spirit of Love enters your heart, your nature changes. Love becomes easy to do, once you've made up your mind to do it. Choosing to act consistent with faith is a physical display of your spiritual reality. If you come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and do not grow in your faith (renew your mind and physical actions to align with this new reality), you will not experience the freedom and peace that is in Christ (Romans 12:1-3, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Philippians 4:7-9). This is because freedom and the full/abundant life is found in following God's principles, not the worlds (see Appendix 1G). Your freedom is found within the boundaries of Almighty God's Christianity (Ezekiel 36:27, John 10:10). God honors your free choice, but when you decide to act consistently with your new Godly nature, the Holy Spirit "of Love" equips and empowers you to carry it out (Proverbs 16:9, Ephesians 5:2, Colossians 1:11) .
However, many believers fail to realize that this freedom is found in the implementation of God's principles because they are stuck in their comfort zone - a comfortable worldly habit of both physical and mental habits, that block this promise of freedom in Christ ( Appendix 2H). Old habits need to be traded for new ones so you make what is true in your Spirit a reality in your body and soul. Exchange anxiety and self-doubt for peace and trust in God. Christians remain stuck in their habits and addictions when fear of change replaces trust. The potential of your faith is the ability to choose to use the power of the Holy Spirit to lead you to change your physical habits (read https://walkingbyfaith.tv/realizing-your-potential/). Making this choice to take on Christlike habits leads you to physically experience the freedom you have in Christ. Believe (accept as true) and receive (show your acceptance through your actions) are the action words that the Bible uses to describe how to make Christianity real in your life. Shift your focus away from self and on to God. Trust His Word as you do what it says so you can successfully maneuver through the up and downs of this life.
-
Revisit Appendix 1A (authentic of trust) and Appendix 1Q (resiliency) to see how these character traits are built from both the the love and fear of the Lord and these "sustains conduct".
Decision-making and problem-solving with humility and dependence on God are the keys to "Mastering the Art of Self" in this physical world. Decide today to make your spiritual transformation true in your body and soul (Acts 20:32). Spirit-led behavior is the deliberate decision to yield yourself to conform with Godly principles (Ephesians 5:15-17, 1 Peter 1:13-16). Curb human instincts that urge you to try to please yourself. As Eve learned in the Garden of Eden, the temptation to sin is disguised by your self-interest (1 Corinthians 10:13, James 1:14-15, Genesis 3:6). You don’t need to be good enough to earn God’s acceptance, but you do need to be humble enough to repent, obey, and accept His goodness, grace and sovereignty over your life (Luke 3:8, 9:23, 2 Chronicles 7:14).
-
Turn the page to see that you find your rest is in Christ.
-
Read more in Appendices 1G, 1J, and 2D, 2R and 2U to see how a change to your perception can bring about actions that produce this rest.