Matthew 5:16
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Good works must be generated from our NEW creations in order to truly shine. Serving the Body of Christ is important work and needs to be done but without the corruption of the spirit of religion. If we are compelled to make coffee for people and then grumble after they leave about how ungrateful the people were, then we are being led astray by the spirit of religion.
We are no longer under the law but rather we are now under grace and we should be compelled by truth to power our service to the Body of Christ. The Grace of Our Father, Jesus Christ the light and life of the world, has bestowed upon us NEW life.
NEW creation life has a NEW life source. Trying to live NEW life by rehabilitating our old life will not allow the Light of the World to shine out of us. Our NEW creation life source is powered by the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. Having Jesus’s powerful light living inside of us changes the way that we serve.
If we are convinced that we are NEW creations we will act like it and we can joyfully serve without needing anything in return, not even a thank you. There is no accidental way to operate in our NEW powerful lives. We must insist in our thoughts that all of the truth of the scriptures is honored with our steadfast agreement. Honoring the finished work of Christ in us is how we bring Father the glory that He so deserves.
If we truly believe that we are NEW creations, righteous, holy, blameless and above reproach then we will automatically shine that finished work out into the world around us. Shining is not something that we have to strive for. Jesus Christ has done all of the heavy lifting for us, our job is to simply believe in the most profound and phenomenal simplicity of the Gospel. NEW means NEW. The old is dead, though it may try and convince us through familiarity that it is still alive, but it is on the outside trying to get back in.
The old man cannot get back in. He is completely DEAD. But we must not let our NEW man starve. We must feed our NEW man the excellent truth that now defines us. We truly are righteous and holy and blameless and above reproach forever. Light will emanate from us automatically as we embrace our true identity. There is no governor on the amount that we can shine so let’s unfetter our imaginations and shine into the world around us. ALL things are possible for NEW creations. Hallelujah!
Father, I am truly grateful for Your grace. I am saved through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and now I am a NEW creation. I am holy and righteous and set free from sin and death. I will not be guided by feelings and emotions but rather I will be propelled by Your truth. Everything that You say in Your Word is absolute truth. I will take every thought captive that sets itself up against Your Word. I know that You have given me everything that I need to shine the finished work of Jesus Christ out of me and into this dark world. I will illuminate automatically out of my NEW creation life.
Holy Spirit, please help me to see when I am being led astray by the spirit of religion and show me how to walk in this NEW life that You have given me. I want to bring glory to the Father and I need Your guidance to do that effectively. I desire to shine Your magnificent powerful light into the kingdom of darkness and pull down strongholds. I will wage war on the darkness all around me and I will snuff out the phony light of the spirit of religion. I am equipped for every good work that You have prepared for me to do. I love You. In Jesus name. Amen.
