Child of the Living God, this is who YOU Are

According to the book of Ephesians...

• YOU have been blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing in Christ.  1:3
  
• YOU are chosen from before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless 1:4
• YOU are loved and adopted into the same status as Jesus Christ 1:5
• YOU are invited to know God's mysterious plans. 1:8-10
• YOU are sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit (who wants to lead you into all truth and speak to you of what is coming - John 16) 1:13-14
• YOU are offered wisdom and revelation so that you may know God better.  1:17
• YOU are the one for whom God holds incomparably great power—power which can raise the dead and supersede all evil in the world.  1:19-22
• YOU are raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. 2:6
• YOU exist to show the incomparable riches of Gods grace through His KINDNESS to you in Christ Jesus.  2:7
• YOU are created for goodness, and God sets you up to carry out beautiful acts of holiness  2:10
• YOU have been granted 24-7 access to God and are offered free confidence to do so through Christ.  3:12
• YOU are enabled to grow in understanding of God’s love and thereby granted fullness like the fullness of God.  3:17-19
• YOU are appointed for sacred undertakings that enhance and grow the kingdom of God on earth and help its citizens reach fullness. 4:12-13
• YOU, with your spiritual brothers and sisters, are enabled, to become a mature entity like Christ Himself by speaking the truth in love to one another.  4:15-16 
• YOU have access to the strength and power of God which can stand against all evil. 
  
• YOU are outfitted by God with:
• truth
• righteousness
• the good news of peace that makes us ready to fight (because it’s so worth fighting for!), 
• faith that makes the enemy’s lies ineffective against you, 
• unconditional victory
• the weapon of God's Spirit which is His constant communication to us. 6:10-17

 

It is abundantly evident to me in these verses that the children of God stand in the world as an outpost representing God's growing ownership in the world and the ongoing defeat of the enemy here.  I love the soldier language of Ephesians 6 that probably brought to mind the Roman soldiers of Paul’s day, who were well outfitted, trained, and equipped to represent the emperor wherever they might find themselves.

Oh, don't lose sight of who you are, Christian!  

YOU are a stunning and victorious force to be reckoned with!   And you're aloud (meant to) to celebrate that!