“The Lord said to Abraham,…Lift up your eyes and look… for the land which you see, I will give it to you….” Genesis 13:14-17 (NASB) God invites Abraham to limitless living.

In my late twenties I went through a journey where I developed a great dislike for the mental image I had of Christians. Most of the Christians I saw seemed to be struggling financially, stressed out or in the midst of some relationship debacle. For the most part the examples around me weren’t a depiction of the abundant life that Christ promised in John 10:10b (TPT), “I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!” Christians, based on what I was reading in the Bible were supposed to be baffling the world because of the power and authority we have in Christ and not in competition with the world in divorce rates, depression, suicide rates and poverty.

The disparity between biblical and actual christianity deeply troubled me. I knew wealthy Christians who were searching for hope and joy in every dollar they made or gave away: God wasn’t their hope. I knew Christians who worked two or three jobs and were still dependent on government handouts for survival: God wasn’t their provider. I knew Christians who read the Bible daily whose kids were always at the bottom of their classes: God wasn’t their source of wisdom. I know Christians who seemed powerless against the devil’s constant attacks: their God wasn’t omnipotent. I knew faithful Christians who were in church every time the doors opened and seemed to be desperately searching for Christ but never finding him: they sought God yet he couldn’t be found. Sad Christians, hopeless Christians, poor Christians, powerless Christians, Christians without a purpose were all oxymorons to me. I’m not trying to criticize anyone because I wasn’t displaying evidence of the abundant life either.

My quest for answers became personal and I began to discover things about myself. I learned that I was actually afraid of the devil because he seemed more powerful than the God I was serving. I would often experience night terrors, where I felt like I was being pressed into my pillow and I would struggle to say “Jesus” but I would later awaken in a cold sweat and shaking like a leaf. I developed an offensive strategy against the devil: every time I had a night terror, I would pray for souls to be saved in China. After a few months the night terrors stopped. I figured I had outsmarted the devil but he began to attack me in other areas. I eventually stopped praying for China because it felt like I was being attacked whenever I did. Yes, I was indeed afraid of the devil. During that time I had also stopped sharing my faith because what I had to offer began to look like a step down from whatever people in the world were experiencing.

I became desperate and began to delve into the Bible to understand who God really was and what He said about me as a Christian. God began to reveal himself to me in a manner that I had never experienced before and I began to see glimpses of the root causes of the problem. The main issue was a lack of knowledge. Hosea 4: 6 says, “My people are ruined because they don’t know what’s right or true. Because you’ve turned your back on knowledge….” The other side of the coin is explained in Daniel 11:32 which says, “Those who know their God shall be strong and will do exploits.” Knowledge of who God is, is clearly laid out in his word, the Bible, but the Bible isn’t like any other book. In order to truly understand what the Bible says the Holy Spirit has to open your understanding. So you can read the bible like a novel daily and gain nothing of significance from your reading time. Have you ever read a verse that you had read multiple times before and all of a sudden you gained a totally new, life altering understanding of what it meant? That’s an example of how God can “…open (our) minds to understand the scriptures,” as he did with the disciples in Luke 24:45. Since God’s word is the blueprint for the Christian life, if Christians don’t understand and know what God says, we simply can’t do exploits.

As a child I learned from my pastor to always qualify what I heard in sermons against the word of God. That meant that I had to study the word of God so I actually knew what it said. I had developed a solid understanding of who God was, built a relationship where I saw Him as my Heavenly Daddy and I had experienced supernatural happenings in my life. I grew older, moved away, got busy and I started blindly trusting whatever I heard preached from the pulpit. Very often I failed to qualify it as I had been taught. I began to internalize lies and misinterpretations of scripture as truth and Christianity became carnality. I began to live in fear of a God who was a dictator instead of the loving Father the bible says he is. Christianity for so many is whatever a trusted pastor, elder, deaconess or church mother says it is. Our hearts are in the right place and we have a genuine desire to live lives pleasing to God but we trust human beings to define Christianity for me rather than studying God’s word and developing a relationship with Him. Christianity becomes more of a quest to follow rules rather than a journey of fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives.

The first principle that one must understand in order to begin to shift to living limitlessly is that as Believers while we live in the world, we are not of the world, as Jesus says in John 17:16, “…they (Christ followers) are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” The Bible further explains in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (TPT) that as Christians, we have “become an entirely new creation. Everything related to the old order has vanished….” The footnote goes on to explain, “This would include our old identity, our life of sin, the power of Satan, the religious works of trying to please God, our old relationship with the world, and our old mind-sets. We are not reformed or simply refurbished, we are made completely new by our union with Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” That says it all. “He (God) has rescued us completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom realm of his beloved Son.” The Holy Spirit has to help you understand this truth. There is no way that the finite mind could resolve this. Believers no longer operate by or are limited by the principles of this world, we are now part of a whole different realm ruled by Christ. Christianity is therefore not about us trying to fit a mold designed by another human being. Colossians 1: 26-27 explains the mystery of Christianity, “Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple.” Philippians 2:13 simplifies it further, “God is the one who enables you both to want (to) and to actually live out his good purposes”. With that knowledge comes the power to begin to operate in the supernatural. It no longer about me, it’s now about Christ who lives inside of me.

In the book of Acts the disciples demonstrate this power to operate in the supernatural. By the power of the Holy Spirit they spoke and everyone who was around them heard their native language, approximately 14 of which were present. Peter preached and three thousand souls were saved and baptised. They healed the cripple and blind and demonstrated power through many signs and wonders. Peter and John were arrested while preaching and instead of the crowds running in fear, thousands made the decision to follow Jesus. In the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:26-40, Philip was directed by an angel to go and speak with the eunuch. Philip later baptized the eunuch before “…the Spirit of the Lord…supernaturally transported Philip to Azotus.” Christians were known and feared. Unlike today where Christians seem to be a laughing stock. The early church lived and consistently manifested the power of the Holy Spirit. They were no longer mere men, they were now Kingdom beings.

Once we grasp the concept of being new creations and belonging to a new Kingdom then Romans 12:2 helps us understand how we are to actually live this limitless life. It says, “Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you,but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.” Now let’s identify the steps laid out in this verse before we take the time to explore and truly understand what they mean:

1. A total reformation of how you think. The world lives in fear. Christians must stop living by fear. We are supposed to be imitators of Christ not of the world. If we truly examine our lives we’ll see that a lot of what we do is out of fear. We go to school and study hard, get a great job, work 50-70 hours a week if not more and drag through life exhausted all because we’re afraid of the consequences of not following the status quo. In other words the world tells us that if we don’t follow this model we’ll end up broke and destitute. No one wants to end up like that, so we ignore God’s word and try to succeed the world’s way. We MUST by the power of the Holy Spirit STOP reasoning things out like the world and get back to God’s word regardless of how illogical it seems.

2. Being empowered to discern God’s will. As I’m walking through this journey I’m amazed at how the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding me. He brings scriptures to my mind just as I need them. Here are two examples. My 13 year old is starting high school and I was pondering over whether he should play basketball or football and I was worrying about whether he would have too much on his plate with sports and all honors or pre AP courses. As a mom I want to ensure that I assist him in making the right decision, “whatsoever you put your hands to do shall prosper” came to mind. While worrying about traffic and trying to figure out the best time to leave to beat traffic, “don’t worry about anything…” came to mind.

It’s important to note that the Holy Spirit has always been prompting me, it’s just that there’s been too much of the world’s noise in my life to hear that “still small voice” that Elijah heard as described in 1 Kings 19:11-13 (NKJV). Here’s what changed: I intentionally put down my tablet that was consuming my time and engrossing my focus. In retrospect, I had become calloused to the evil of this world’s system and the more I enjoyed the entertainment the more numb to the evil I became. Perhaps that’s where you are: watching and listening to movies and songs with cursing, swearing and bits of partial nudity have become okay. They once made you uneasy but gradually the ‘little lump of leaven is impacting the entire loaf’ and you’re either oblivious or nonchalant or a combination of both. Christ died to free us from “the power of sin and death” so it is definitely not pleasing for him to see us sliding down such slopes. It’s not just about randomly stopping actions and activities, it about fixing our focus on Christ as Hebrews 12:2 says, “We look away from the natural realm and we fasten our gaze onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection.” Reading the Bible and praying during your 30 minutes of daily chair time doesn’t equate to fastening your gaze. When you’re focused on something, everything else around you is a blur and your efforts and energies are directed towards the object of your focus. The more you focus on “the author and finisher of your faith” the larger and louder he becomes and the smaller and quieter all the other things around you become. That’s what the Bible is talking about. When God is your focus, his will for you becomes clear. What does it look like in your life? What adjustments do you need him to make in your life so that you can know and do his will?

3. Live a life satisfying and perfect in his eyes. What does a satisfying life look like for you? Galatians 2:20 (TPT) says it better than I ever could, “My old identity has been co-crucified with Messiah and no longer lives; for the nails of his cross crucified me with him. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, and dispenses his life into mine!” When I became a christian the old me died, now Christ lives his life through me. So to repeat, I am dead and Christ lives through me. Do you get it? Now that you’ve been informed, what does a satisfying life look like for you? For the Christian, who is dead, a satisfying life is a life lived focused on God’s purposes, as Christ did on the earth, he fulfilled the purpose of the father. What’s sooo cool though is that he doesn’t even leave that for us to fumble through he lives, yes he lives through us. 2 Peter 1:3 summarizes it, “Everything we could ever need for life and complete devotion to God has already been deposited in us by his divine power.” Note that it doesn’t say will be deposited but we already have everything we need within us. So are you ready for some limitless living.

In summary, Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NASB) describes limitless living:
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord
And whose trust is the Lord.
“For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit.

Yes, that’s what limitless living looks like. That’s a true picture of the life of Christians who have died to self and now experience Christ living in and through them. Those new creations who are one with Christ. Those who have power over all the powers of the enemy. Those who walk by faith and not by sight. Those who can do all things through Christ. Those whose needs are all supplied. Those who live by the word.