IN-CHRISTed Life

   Becoming Who We Already Are

  By Doug Fortune

Note from Doug Fortune:
You may have noticed our recent name change to 'IN CHRIST International' and new graphics. This reflects what I believe that the essence of our message is - CHRIST! The Third Day message is NOT about a 'Day', or even about a 'message', it is all about Christ! Christ IS the Third Day... the Third Day is the day of resurrection and "Jesus said unto her, I AM the RESURRECTION, and the LIFE:" (John 11:25) It is all about CHRIST and His LIFE being lived through us.
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“For in Him we live, and move, and have our BEING...”(Acts 17:28)

In our studies of destiny, we have discovered a Life, the eternal zoe Life of God without beginning or end, that Jesus came to give to US abundantly; "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10). It is a Life originating in Christ, lived in Christ and ultimately consummated in Christ... the IN-Christed Life.

I used to have a Christianity that was more ENCRUSTED than In-Christed. I was encrusted in layers of inaccurate beliefs and mindsets that had slowly hardened over the years. I had built a Charismatic / Pentecostal cocoon for myself. I died in that cocoon, suffocated by my own doing. I was resurrected out of that cocoon into a new life. In reality, it’s a Life older than time itself, just new to me. I don’t know that I yet walk in the total fullness of that Life, but I am ‘laboring to enter into the rest’ of that Life.... resting in the finished work of Christ; "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath CEASED from HIS OWN WORKS, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest..." (Hebrews 4:9-11) My personal calling is to help facilitate the release of that Life through teaching and impartation, helping facilitate destiny in the lives of others.

Much of our entering into and manifesting the In-Christed Life has to do with the renewing of our minds (Rom.12:2), “For as he thinketh in his heart, so IS he...”(Prov.23:7). With that in mind, let us consider some Scriptures that speak of the progression of the In-Christed Life.

CALLED in Christ -
Romans 8:29-30 speaks of our being CALLED; “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son... them He also CALLED: and whom He CALLED, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” The word translated as called is kaleho in Greek, meaning to call forth. It is from kelyouo, which means to incite by word. The Father foreknew us, foreordained us, and by His words spoke our calling into our being.

Isaiah 55:11 speaks of this WORD, this calling; “So shall My WORD be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” The Father spoke His WORD, the deposit of Christ into you before the foundation of the world. Contained within that WORD that you heard from the beginning is the power to bring that WORD to manifestation in your life. The Father says it will prosper in the thing for which He SENT it! You are SENT, my friend! You are SENT with the destiny and purpose of the Father that He spoke into you from the beginning. He is also watching over that Word, that deposit of Christ, in order to bring it to fruition; "Then said the Lord to me, You have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My word to perform it." (Jeremiah 1:12 Amplified Bible)

CHOSEN in Christ -
“He CHOSE us- actually picked us out for Himself as His own- in Christ BEFORE the foundation of the world...” (Ephesians 1:4 Amplified Bible)
“for many be called, but few CHOSEN.”(Matthew 20:16)... “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have CHOSEN you, and ordained you...”(John 15:16)
To bring clarity on this subject, let us consider a progression in the seedbed of Genesis 1:26-27:
CALLED - “God SAID, Let us make man...” God speaking His purpose
CHOSEN - “in Our image and likeness” - God choosing what kind of man to make
CREATED - “so God created” - God bringing to manifest that which He had called and chosen.

The man that He has CHOSEN is the Man in the image and likeness of God that is inside each of us. That man is the One with zoe (Spirit) Life. We also have a choice and it is this, “For whosoever will save his life (psuche in Greek- the soulish life) shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”(Matthew 16:25). You can choose to live in the soulish Adamic man, or you can choose to live in the Christ-man who is the REAL you. “For in Him we live, and move, and have our BEING...”(Acts 17:28).

This is why many are called, but few are chosen... it is not that the Father is out to exclude anybody. It is that many choose to live in the deception of the soulish psuche life, rather than the Christ Life. Thus few are chosen because the man the Father has chosen is the Christ-Man, Christ IN you the hope of glory. We are CHOSEN in Christ!

CREATED in Christ -
“For we are His workmanship, CREATED in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath BEFORE ordained that we should walk in them.”(Ephesians 2:10) To bring clarity, let us examine a spiritual principle at work:

God CREATES things in spirit before he FORMS or manifests them in the natural realm. He separated light from darkness the first day, yet it wasn’t till the fourth day that He made the sun, moon and stars. And just like the Father CREATED man in Genesis chapter One but didn’t FORM him till chapter Two; we were created in Christ before we were FORMED in the womb. The word translated as create in Genesis One is bara in Hebrew, giving the idea of creating something out of nothing... the Father SPOKE this man into existence. The word translated as formed is Genesis Two is yatsar in Hebrew meaning to squeeze or mold into a form... the Father molded this man from the earth. The substance of the man in Genesis One was spirit or breath (same word in Hebrew-ruach) as God SPOKE. The substance of the man in Genesis Two was earth.

These two men found complete expression in the Man Christ Jesus as He is the Last Adam. Did you catch that?... Jesus Christ was the LAST Adam, and He formed a perfect union of being a Spirit-Man manifested in a natural / physical body... “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us...”(John 1:14). He was the LAST Adam so that WE may become the Second Man - Christ manifest in His many-membered Body; “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.”(1 Corinthians 12:12). We are no longer IN Adam as Jesus Christ was the LAST Adam; our true identity is created IN Christ!

CONSECRATED in Christ -
As we read through Exodus chapters 28 and 29 we find much pertaining to CONSECRATION- that which is set apart to the worship of God. Specifically pertaining to the consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests set apart unto God and the consecration of the tent of meeting. Without going into great detail, we can read of the garments of consecration they were to be clothed with and the ram of consecration they were to eat.

My friend, you and I are to be a “tent of meeting”, a place of communion between God and men, clothed with Christ and feeding upon His body and blood. "For as many [of you] as were baptized into Christ [into a spiritual union and communion with Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah] have PUT ON (CLOTHED yourselves with) Christ." (Galatians 3:27 Amplified Bible) "He who feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood dwells continually in Me, and I [in like manner dwell continually] in him." (John 6:56 Amplified Bible)

We are set apart, consecrated as priests unto God after the order of Melchizedek, and this consecration is only possible IN Christ. "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually." (Hebrews 7:3) The life of Melchizedek was without beginning or ending of days, eternal Life... and that is the Life Jesus Christ came to give to us abundantly. This is the Life that is consecrated unto God, for it is His very Life in Christ manifesting through us.

CRUCIFIED in Christ -
Only something dead can be resurrected. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”(Colossians 3:3) “Knowing this, that our old man IS crucified WITH HIM, that the body of sin might be destroyed...”(Romans 6:6) Some are trying to ‘die daily” by effort and sacrifice... this may sound noble, but it leads to a deadly form of pride - false humility. We must RECKON ourselves dead, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11), however to ‘die daily” by effort and sacrifice will lead to pride. When Paul penned those words, he literally faced physical death on a daily basis because of his message and the culture he lived in. Dead things don’t need to die daily, they’re already dead. Dying daily puts the focus on OUR sacrifice and denies the power of the cross. Jesus said “...if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.(John 12:32). It wasn’t just one Man on the cross, YOU were there also IN Christ. When He died, you died... it didn’t stop there though.

CONTINUE in Christ -
When He was resurrected, you were resurrected... or rather, the Christ Life within you was resurrected. Adam was not resurrected, he was dealt with ONCE and for all, for Jesus Christ was the LAST Adam. This is why Paul says “...nevertheless I LIVE, yet not I, but Christ lives IN me.”(Galatians 2:20) “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall CONTINUE in the Son, and in the Father.”(I John 2:24-25) We are to continue in Christ, in that which we heard from the beginning - the destiny that He spoke into us before He even formed us.

CONSUMMATED in Christ -
“Making known to us the mystery of His will- of His plan, of His purpose. And it is this: In accordance with His good pleasure which He had previously purposed and set forth IN HIM, He planned for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all things and head them up and CONSUMMATE them IN Christ...”(Ephesians 1:9-10 Amplified Bible)

* We WILL see the fulfillment of Genesis 1:26-28; a many-membered MAN (male and female) in the image and likeness of God, filling the earth and subduing it...
* We WILL see the fulfillment of Ephesians 4:13 “...that WE might arrive at mature manhood, the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection.”
* We WILL see the ‘teleios’ Perfect Many-membered Man, the Second Man...
* We WILL see the manifestation of mature ‘huios’ Sons of God...

Most of this progression is actually PAST tense-
CALLED
CHOSEN
CREATED
CONSECRATED
CRUCIFIED

and then there’s-
CONTINUING
CONSUMMATION

It’s really a matter of becoming who we ALREADY ARE in Spirit, in Christ... bringing that finished work to manifestation in our individual and corporate Life. Let us press on to the ‘mark’ of manifesting the Life of Christ in the world, “because as He IS, so are WE in this world.”(1 John 4:17).