Do you realize that God designed and delights in you as His unique masterpiece? What might be the difference between living fully as that masterpiece and simply experiencing the average Christian Life?
God’s Masterpiece
Eph 2:10
“For we are his workmanship (“masterpiece” – NKJ), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
As Paul shares in Ephesians 2:20, God designed each of us as His unique masterpiece. We are created in Christ to walk in specific kingdom works (missions) for His glory and are not accidents left to wander about hoping to find meaningful identities that “might” please God.
In Jeremiah 1:5, God speaks to us as well as to Jeremiah. He exhorts, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah was consecrated as God’s prophet to the nations. God has also consecrated you with a specific calling. In place of “prophet” and “to the nations,” He has inserted your unique kingdom role(s) and area(s) of influence. Only by walking with Him in this identity will we find the fullness of life He intends. Pray for revelation and then place your name and calling in this Scripture. Live accordingly in His Spirit’s guidance.
Your Heavenly Father Delights In You
Psalm 37: 23, 24 (NKJ)
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and He delights in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.”
Psalm 139: 14
“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works: my soul knows it very well.”
As we consider Psalm 37, we are to understand that “a good man (person)” is one who receives Christ and whose heart is right with God. They are righteous through Christ and Him only, for no one is “good” in God’s eyes through their deeds (Rom 3:10-12). They are seeking to follow God’s commandments and to serve Him but are doing so through the work of His Spirit instead of the futile actions of their flesh. God is always with us to lift us when we fall and guide us as we continue forward in His love and grace. He orders our steps as we journey with Him into His masterpiece life. We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made.
As Christ followers, our Father God sees us as righteous through the blood and resurrection, the finished work of Christ. He is not focusing on our sins but on our journey with Him. He sees us through the eyes of the following verses.
2 Cor 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Eph 4:24
“and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Phil 1:6
“And I am sure of this, that he who begun a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Though we know He sees us as righteous in Christ, we are to be healthily grieved when we sin and immediately return to Christ through confession, repentance, His forgiveness, and our renewed walk. If we do not, we break fellowship, grieve the Spirit and attempt to move on in our own power. In this “flesh” mode, we cannot help but fail. Though our Father has not moved, we have moved away from Him. He is right there drawing us to Him and His empowered, victorious life. He is committed to His good work in us through Christ and “will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” We can always rebel, but at great loss. To what degree are we living and walking by His Spirit in these truths?
Called Into His Light
1 Peter 2:9
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. A people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
As His masterpiece, we are called out of the darkness and into His marvelous light. He is the light. Through His Spirit, His light shines in and through us as we permit Him to be the only power that brings transformation and Christ’s life. Before Christ, we lived in another kingdom and served another master.
Our Choice
Because God loves us completely, each of us is free to choose. Initially, we receive or reject Christ. Once we receive Him, an incredibly new opportunity for life in Him is presented. This is the act of deciding to surrender all control within our lives to His Spirit, as we abandon the futile attempt of trying to act like Christ through efforts of our flesh. Some Christians determine to live their entire lives as infants in Christ. As Paul relates in 1 Corinthians 3: 1-3, “But I brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food … even now you are not yet ready, for you are still in the flesh.” God does not surrender us to this state easily. Yet, ultimately, we have free will. In this infant state, we are saved but leave much of His masterpiece life caged within as we leave this earth. This is a tragic waste, where we often walk in the shadows instead of His light.
God’s masterpiece life is not about focusing on ourselves. It is about Christ and His life in us. It is not about what we can do, but about what He does in and through us. We and His Church then walk in the fullness of His love and power, unafraid to stand firmly for His truths as secular and religious cultures ridicule all who embrace Him and His Bible. We replace safe and comfortable church lives with the masterpiece lives walked in His light and power.
Journey & Transformation Walking in Christ
Gal 5: 24, 25 (NKJ)
“And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
As we humbly embrace both God’s commissions and His design of walking through life in the Spirit (Galatians 5:24, 25), our unique, personal journeys explode through new meaning and empowerment. His Spirit flows in and through us for His glory. We will stumble and fall as part of our growth, but He is always there, and we continuously learn to live by placing our flesh on the cross with Christ and asking His Spirit to fill us. We place Him in control of all we are, say, and do.
Campus Crusade For Christ has a picture displaying the throne of our lives. They then ask, “Who is on the throne of your life?” And we add, this is a question for each moment and action, not only for salvation. God’s Spirit immediately indwells us, upon salvation, but we must learn to surrender control. Honest Christians recognize that their flesh takes over numerous times and replaces God’s Spirit. He calls us to recognize this and place Him back in control. He will not force us. We must learn to intentionally listen to His Spirit at all times and about all things. We then grow throughout our journey, as we continue to increase the amount of time that He is in charge and accomplishing His will in and through us by His power. Living as less is saying “No” to God and forfeiting much of the wonder and joy of His design.
Masterpiece in Process or Self-Designed Imitation?
How do you view yourself and others? Has brokenness, false teaching, or even false humility caused you to deny His masterpiece calling? Have secular or church “successes” led you to think you are pleasing Him as you live in your flesh, self-confident and making little room for God’s Spirit to control and direct your life? Many of the hardest Christians for God to reach are those whom the church and the world embrace as successful because they meet worldly standards, even though they have missed God’s calling or are walking in their flesh. Are you His Spirit-led masterpiece in process, or an imitation formed out of your own or your religious and secular culture’s expectations?
Application
What is God’s Spirit directing you to do in order to embrace your masterpiece life in all the freedom, fullness, and power of the Holy Spirit?
Author’s Bio: Curt Martin is an author, speaker, seminar leader, and organization consultant. God has filled him with the passion to see every individual and organization become the unique and incredible masterpiece God designed. Little touches Him more than helping awaken all God placed within you, so you thrive in His freedom, purpose, and power as you learn to walk in God’s Spirit. Only those who commit to this journey experience the fullness of living God’s victorious life. Articles include excerpts from his award winning book, “Whose Life Are You Living.”
Here is some related reading for you: How to Be Transformed Into the Image of Christ
Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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