WE ARE NOT VICTIMS

Our hope in Christ separates us from the world who thinks and acts like victims; we are not under any oppression, from our culture, our parents, our race or anything satan would want to persuade us to believe.

I recall once striking up a conversation in a coffee shop with a young black man who was convinced he was fighting oppression and a culture that was dead-set against him. In that worldview, that is what he experienced. I very kindly implored him to create his own future with the Lord in prayer and through hard work, and ignore what “culture” or “family” was putting on him. I almost begged him not to give way to the expectations and to even shut them out since he was defining them so negatively. I told him to laser focus on what he needed to do today to make steps towards the future he wanted and the future God wanted for him.

Any young man with this experience must embrace this reality from God’s Word: If Jesus has made you victorious, there is nothing greater than Christ. His work on the cross, according to Philippians, has made you a part of God’s family, and that family and it’s heavenly truths must define you more than the racial boxes humanity tries to place you in. It is certainly not God who would speak to your mind to persuade you that you can’t create or be successful due to your skin color.

Satan is truly inferior! Think about what happens in Genesis when God starts over. He floods the earth. Satan had contaminated the seed of man, and man had grown more and more sinful. God could start over with Noah and his family because He is God! Satan is inferior to Him. God has power over Satan and his schemes. No matter how powerful you think Satan is, God is stronger. No matter how loud the voices are that tell you “you can’t” or “you won’t amount to anything…” you must reject them!

Maybe you’re thinking lately, “God has no interest in my life. God can’t really make anything special from me…” You must reject those lies and realize that Christ’s work on the cross and resurrection from the dead earned for you right-standing with God, union with your Maker! On top of all that, He gives you His Spirit to enable your creative work - to return you to “human design” - one who extends Eden and fills the earth with the creative work and glory of God! God’s Spirit can “work powerfully in you” according to Scripture.

God tells Noah essentially the same thing that He told Adam: “fill the earth. Multiply! Work! Create with Me!” WOW! How did we not see that before!

How humbling this is! Does God need us, though? No. God could create all that He wants to create and manage without us, but He chooses to include us in the creative and restoring process! What an honor!

Why does He do this? Isn’t work part of the “curse” in the Garden of Eden? No! Work was a joy and a way for mankind to enjoy fellowship with God. The curse simply made “work” much harder. Of course, that’s an understatement of what sin and its effects are. I’m writing a book called Once Saved Being Saved that will go into great explanation, discussing the work of the Holy Spirit to redeem us and teach us how to live in the victory Jesus won on the cross. But for this work and this book I want to say clearly that “work” is not a curse but rather a joy!

When I make LEGO Transformers with my son, we are “working” on something together, and in that, we are bonding. When you co-create with God, you’re bonding with the Creator in what I believe to be the primary way He intended us to live. He revealed Himself as Creator and us as His image-bearing creatives! We get to work. We get to create! We get to imagine! We get to put satan, the inferior one, in his place by displaying the beauty of Jesus every time we show God’s love, create a service or product, or ministry for someone to enjoy!

Don’t let the inferior one get in your head and stop you from your work of art! Revelation 19:6-20:6 tells us that Satan will be defeated by King Jesus once and for all. Revelation 20:1-3 tells us that God and His angels will defeat the dragon. Then we will enjoy the Marriage supper of the Lamb. This is why I stated earlier that King Jesus defeats the Dragon and gets the girl! Don’t let him convince you here and now that your life and work don’t matter! You matter! Your work of art matters!

*This is an excerpt from my upcoming book, ASK THINK IMAGINE.