Have you ever gotten really tired of living a defeated life?  Have you ever wondered why your life of faith seems to be less than you had hoped it would be?  Are you still asking yourself – ‘where is the victory I am supposed to be experiencing’?    I too have gone through what I call my ‘sick and tired’ seasons and I have learned over time that the abundant life that God desires for us doesn’t happen if we are not willing to seize it with everything in us. 

When I was in college, students could audit classes.   This meant that you could attend the class and obtain all the information provided, but you didn’t have to do any homework or take any tests.  Of course you didn’t receive a grade for classes audited but the benefit was that you could try out the class to see if you liked it without any risks (like receiving a bad grade if the class was really hard).  The down side was that you never knew whether you had actually learned any of the key concepts because your knowledge was never put to the test. 

 Many times we go through our life journey with God as though we are auditing a course.  It begins with our salvation in Christ – we know we have the security of eternal life but for many of us, we miss knowing what true liberty in Christ really means.  We are waiting for God to ‘zap’ us into all that we are in Christ.  We want the ‘liberty’ God has promised to just wash over us and overtake us.  We become disappointed when life continues to be difficult or is not as fulfilling as we had hoped it would be.  The truth is the supernatural transformation of our lives has already occurred when we have a right relationship with God and are walking in fellowship with Him through His Son.  We are liberated, we are victorious, and we have the power of the living God on the inside of us!  So why doesn’t it always feel as though we do? 

 Is it because we may be accepting those subtle lies that the enemy of our souls quite often whispers to us?  Words like:  “If God is as great as you think He is, why can’t He just cause you to be who you are in Christ supernaturally?”  ~or~ “Maybe this liberty in Christ stuff isn’t real.  If it is, why are you still struggling to live victoriously after being saved so long?”  Or maybe the enemy has even used scripture to convince you that who you are in Christ will never happen:  “He who the Son sets free is free indeed.  But you’re not free; you’re still having the same powerless life, so maybe there really is no power in Jesus?”    

 He has used that strategy for centuries.  He even used it with Jesus (see Luke 4:9-11).  But just as Jesus did, we must always respond with the truth of God’s word.  The truth is faith without works is dead.  We must each be willing to walk out our faith.  We don’t do this to save ourselves; instead, we do it to mature and to become what we already are in Christ.  The supernatural work of God has already been done.  Yes, He could ‘zap’ us into instant victory but how would we then know His power if we had never had to deal with those strongholds (anything that keeps us from living a liberated life) that are clearly more than our human power can handle? 

It is through the discipleship process that we begin to know God.  It is through the journey with Him that we see His glory revealed in our lives.  You and I will never know who we are in Christ until we see God work powerfully removing the strongholds in our lives that keep us from walking in full liberty.  This requires our full attention and a lot of hard work.  To illustrate this point, I am reminded of a time when one of my clients thought she had charged up her cell phone because she had connected it to the phone charger.  But later she realized that she had neglected to plug the charger into the power source.  As a result the cell phone was dead and depleted of any ability to receive calls.  The phone and the charger were both equipped to do their jobs – but neither could do what they were created to do without their source of power. 

 Neither can you or me.  We will never be all that we were created to be without God’s power.  If we are in Christ, then we have the power source living on the inside of us, but we must ‘plug-in’.  Just as the cell phone is not able to do anything it was designed to do without staying powered up, the same is true for me and you.  We plug into our source of power by spending time with God – reading His word, meditating, seeking fellowship with other believers, and attending worship services.   We consciously decide to no longer accept those lies that keep us from having victory and replace those lies with truth.  We surround ourselves with worship music and get into the holy habit of praise!  All of these can keep us plugged into the source of all our power.  With this comes liberty!   

 If you want to have a life of victory, if you want to really enjoy freedom from all those things that keep you from becoming all that God intended you to be, then stop auditing your life and get to work.  Knowing that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it just as He said He would.