Identity in Christ
A Matter of Position
Having position, or standing, is to have the authority to do something. A number of legal cases were rejected by the courts in recent history on the grounds that those bringing the suits did not have standing. The judges ruled that those who brought the suits did not have the right to sue. One aspect of our identity in Christ is the position, standing, or authority we have as believers and children of God.
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe
can withstand]. I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust! For
[then] He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. [Then] He will cover you with His pinions, and
under His wings shall you trust and find refuge; His truth and His faithfulness are a shield and a buckler.
Psalms 91:1-4 AMPC
As with most promises of God, as far as I know, there are conditions for taking advantage of the promise. It is a matter of position or standing. When does a promise become a right? When the conditions or prerequisites are fulfilled. Believers often quote promises from the bible to “stand on”, or “hold onto” without, however, examining the condition and determining whether or not it has been satisfied.
Verse 1 above begins with the phrase, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High”, and is followed by the promise for those who do. This phrase is the condition to be satisfied in order to have the right to claim the promise. I suspect that most believers would claim to be fulfilling this condition. Without honest self-examination and a little bit of study, how does one truly know if they have standing? This lesson is not for this promise only, but for every promise in the Word of God.
- He: the person who fulfills the condition
- who dwells: the person who permanently resides there
- in the secret place: the place the person dwells
- of the Most High: the one who possesses the “secret place”
The key here is to understand the “secret place of the Most High” and then determine if we have indeed been dwelling there, or taking up permanent residence. The “Most High”, of course, is Almighty God.
This sentence is by the decree of the [heavenly] watchers and the decision is by the word of the holy ones, to the intent that the living may
know that the Most High [God] rules the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whomever He will and sets over it the humblest and lowliest
of men.
Daniel 4:17 AMPC
Almighty God is the ruler over the realm of mankind. There are many lessons here, but for our current study we are looking at the Most High. There are not many gods, but one God.
Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord [the only Lord].
Deuteronomy 6:4 AMPC
For there [is only] one God, and [only] one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
1 Timothy 2:5 AMPC
God is above all. By definition, according to Merriam-Webster, God is the supreme or ultimate reality. If there were to be equal or superior, God would no longer be supreme or ultimate, and therefore, not actually God. Thus, Almighty God would not be the Most High. Our faith, however, does assert there is one God, the Most High, and so we do not acknowledge other gods.
That being said, the understanding we need concerns the “secret place.” What is it, and where is it? The same verse, the same sentence, goes on to say that the one who dwells there is “stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty.” Being there is to be in a refuge, a fortress. God is one upon whom one can lean, rely, and trust. No one can withstand His power for He is the Almighty, the Supreme, the Ultimate One.
Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and nights.
Exodus 24:18 AMPC
It is said that Moses was dwelling in the secret place when he wrote Psalm 91. Moses went up the mountain to meet with God and entered in to the dark cloud which concealed God.
Thick clouds are a covering to Him, so that He does not see, and He walks on the vault of the heavens.
Job 22:14 AMPC
We have discussed being clothed in Christ, hidden in Christ. Moses was hidden in the shadow of the Most High, the cloud of concealment. That is a place of the perfect peace and presence of God. One would necessarily enter into God’s rest. When in God’s rest, one is in the most perfect spot for experiencing the presence of God and allowing God to work through one.
So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the [true] people of God; For he who has once entered
[God’s] rest also has ceased from [the weariness and pain] of human labors, just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His own. Let
us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves],
that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell].
Hebrews 4:9-11
There is a complete rest in God, in eternal life. The path to it is through belief and obedience. For now, we must practice the presence of God. We must train ourselves to be ever conscious of the presence of God and act accordingly in humility and obedience. Those who do so, enter in the secret place of El Elyon, God Most High.
The above exercise is essential to experiencing any promise of God and what it entails. Understand the promise and discover the condition. Conduct a self-examination with truth and humility, determining if the conditions for claiming the promise have been satisfied. If the conditions are not met, a choice will be made as to walking in obedience or stepping out from under the shadow of His protection. The cost of disobedience and of arrogantly going our own way is the distancing of ourselves from the fullness of the presence of God. We then expose ourselves to the enemy.
This is the matter of position. The closer one is to the fullness of the presence of God, the greater the opportunity to operate from His rest. The further away one is, will result in operating from one’s own strength which is not a good place to be when facing the enemy or God.
Let’s apply this matter of position to healing. This will not be an exhaustive study on healing, but a look at it through the lens of position. What is our position of standing?
Last night while in bed I was praying healing in my body, and I got out of bed and went into my office to look up a bible verse. I ended up looking at several verses and this is what I came to.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He
would have given you living water.”
“but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become a spring of
water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:10, 14 ESV
These verses were good, but not exactly what I was thinking. Then I found it.
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes
in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who
believed in Him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7:37-39 ESV
From the heart, or the “innermost being”. This is where our spirit resides. And we see the condition to the promise; “Whoever believes in Me” is the prerequisite for receiving the living water. Notice that this flows out of the heart. We need this in abundance in our heart.
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for
out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Luke 6:45 ESV
Let’s trace the living water a bit more.
And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water
of life without payment.
Revelation 21:6 ESV
The water is freely given to those who thirst for a relationship with God.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
Revelation 22:1 ESV
The source of the living water is God, and it flows from His throne. Notice that Jesus is seated with the Father as stated in the gospels and epistles.
The prophet Jeremiah refers to God as the fountain.
O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from You shall be written in the earth, for
they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.
Jeremiah 17:13 ESV
The LORD, Almighty God, is referred to here as the “fountain of living water.”
Note: LORD vs. Lord
- LORD: Yahweh of Jehovah; God Almighty
- Think of the Godhead
- Lord: means “my Lord”; suggest sovereign, strength, power
- Think of Christ Jesus in the New Testament usage
Here is a summary:
- Almighty God, the fountain of living water
- The living water flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb
- Water without price to those who believe in Christ Jesus
- Rivers of this water flow from the heart of the believers
- Speaking here of Holy Spirit
So, I see it like this; The LORD, the fountain of living waters, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb, without price to those who believe, welling up within them as springs of water unto eternal life. From the innermost being of the believer flows rivers and springs of living waters, being Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is dwelling within believers, as is Jehovah-Rapha, the LORD who heals, our Health and Healer, unto eternal life.
My prayer:
Let the Living Water permeate every cell in my body, bringing life and health and
healing. Let the Spirit, and Elohim, the Creator and All-powerful One, recreate in
me what the enemy has stolen.
Such was my prayer through the night along with the Scripture.
- Believing it intellectually
- Moving it to, and receiving it in my spirit
- Done by faith and the communion of my spirit and the Spirit that dwells within me
- Not because of me, but because the Word of God says so
- His word shall not return to Him without accomplishing what it was sent to do
“so shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and
shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:11 ESV
God is my all-in-all, and what He has spoken will come to pass.
“And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You
received without paying; give without pay.”
Matthew 10:7-8 ESV
We are commanded to heal the sick.
- This is a command to obey
- This power is by Holy Spirit, the power of God
- The spring of living waters within us is from the throne of God and of the Lamb
- From the throne of God and of the Lamb, welling up inside us, empowered by the Spirit
- We co-labor with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
- We depend upon God Who chooses to work through us
- As we walk in obedience to Him
- Our call is to “Obedience in Love”
- Our body and soul must be subordinate to our spirit which is in communion with Holy Spirit
- Holy Spirit, dwelling within believers, His temple
- His temple ought not be in disrepair
- Thus, healing, deliverance, eternal life
- What a gift at our salvation
- His temple ought not be in disrepair
- Holy Spirit, dwelling within believers, His temple
But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and
with his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5 ESV
- We were delivered, healed, redeemed at the cross
- Through the suffering of Christ Jesus
- With the long-suffering of the Father
- Come to us in the promise of the Holy Spirit
- Not only healing, but health