Where Are Your Sights Set?

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. —Colossians 3:1–2

If you are risen with Christ, made alive with Christ, and seated with Christ, then you are told to set your mind and keep it set on things above. Your thought life has the ability to take you places. It can take you and seat you in heavenly places, where you rule and reign in the earth, or it can take you to the place of being a victim and a person under the worries and cares of life. It can think on your new identity of being righteous, holy, powerful, and free. It can also keep you living as an old, powerless sinner. Paul says “if ye be risen with Christ,” and you have been, then don’t think like the old man. You must set your mind and keep it set on things above. Think on and meditate on what Christ has provided for you; think on His performance and who He made you to be. Never focus on your old, low life, your performance, your sin, or your failings, because then you will resurrect them in your life. You are dead (old man), and your life (your true life) is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). “See” Christ living, Christ walking, Christ talking in and through you (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:4, 11; Philippians 1:21). See yourself healing the sick and casting out devils. See yourself as a raised love creation in Christ. Set your mind and keep it set on who God declares you to be, not on who your performance says you are. You are risen with Him.

Pastor Tom Kehres

Do You Need New Glasses?

Put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. —Colossians 3:8–9

The Bible tells us to put off once and for all the old man we used to be. Consider him dead and gone, crucified with Christ. Then we are not only to put him off, but his deeds also. Notice the list of his deeds—anger, wrath, bad talk, lying—all are deeds, or actions, of the old man, the dead man. Anger is not part of you. Lying is not part of you; filthy communication is not part of who you are. These things are now foreign to you. You are the new man, the righteous man, the holy man. No longer identify or associate in your thought life with the sins of the old sinner. How do you do this? By seeing! See your old man dying on the cross. See him dead and buried! See yourself as a new creation, a spiritual creation, free from sin, free from anger, free from sickness and disease and the curse. See yourself made alive with Christ. See yourself raised and seated in heavenly places. No longer see yourself as you were; do not associate with the old life in thought or in speech. Cast down thoughts and replace them with your new identity in Christ. What you see is what you’ll have!

Pastor Tom Kehres

Christ Is Alive—in You!

I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. —1 Corinthians 15:31

Paul gives us a key to a life of victory, miracles, and power demonstrations: “I die daily!” Notice he is not dying daily; he is not putting himself to death, but he dies daily. He remembered that the old man with the old nature was dead, daily. He had a present-tense revelation that he was dead, day by day. This gave the new man with the new Christlike nature the opportunity to live. He was not trying to control his old nature, overcome his old nature, but he was disclaiming and denying the old man. He considered him dead and gone—daily! Paul remembered daily, “I am dead to sin, sickness, worry, fear, anger, and offense.” He was so sure of the old man’s death that he said in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (emphasis added). He prayed that Christ would be magnified in his body (Philippians 1:20), and he said that for him to now live was Christ (verse 21)! Paul was yielding to and allowing the new man to live his life. Daily he remembered that the old man died and a new life now manifested through him. It pleased God to reveal the Christ nature that was in Paul so that Paul could preach Him to us (Galatians 1:15–16). Why? So that we, too, could get a revelation—a revelation of the old man crucified and the new man manifested in our mortal bodies. God’s desire is this: for us to live, is Christ!

Pastor Tom Kehres

Wake Up!

Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God. —1 Corinthians 15:34

Religion has taught us to struggle to get all the sin out of our lives so we can become holy. It will give you a list of do’s and don’ts for you to become holy and acceptable to God. It will preach that you must do your best to become the new man, try your hardest to become what God desires for you to be. But the Bible teaches you to believe, or awake to, who God has already made you to be—because you are a new creation. Notice, when you become aware of righteousness, when you awake to righteousness, you will sin not! It was all done and completed by Jesus on the cross so that He gets all the glory for who you are. Awake to being made righteous, and sin will leave your life! Awake to the joy of the Lord, and you will sorrow not! Awake to healing by the stripes of Jesus, and your sick days are over! Awake to the blessings of God, and you’ll lack not! Awake to the peace that passes understanding, and you will worry not! Awake to the new man, the Christlike lifestyle, and you will not live like the old man anymore. It is all accomplished by faith in Jesus’s performance, and not by being dependent on your performance; your performance will change when you awake to His performance! Do not focus on your conduct or failures; focus on His provision and victory, and soon you will awake to the finished work of Christ.

Pastor Tom Kehres