Prayer and Your Position in Christ
By: David McFadden
Knowing your position in Christ, who you are in God’s sight, will allow you to see and experience life from an eternal perspective. Your walk with Christ will no longer be a hum-drum experience weighed down with rules, worries, lack, and woes. Moreover, knowing and then realizing that you are a child of the King, will vanquish low self-esteem and any lingering feelings of unworthiness.
As a Christian, you are no longer a slave to sin but a child of the Most High God. You have an inheritance in Christ because you are a joint heir of God’s kingdom with Jesus (Romans 8:15-17). Your ultimate destiny is to reign with Him for eternity. It is incredible to realize that God, who created the universe, looked ahead in time and loved you before the worlds were created.
And because of His love, and as a child of the King, you have access to Him as a well-loved son or daughter.
“There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.” (Galatians 3:28-29 NLT)
This is Good News for many people. God’s Word tells us that, through Jesus, we have overcome the world. Jesus came into our temporal world and died so we could experience His peace, as well as have the fullness of joy that is beyond our natural understanding. God neither chose you nor called you because you were holy, but He called you that you might be holy, and holiness is the beauty produced by His workmanship in you.
“It is God who saved us and chose us to live a holy life. He did this not because we deserved it, but because that was His plan long before the world began—to show His love and kindness to us through Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 1:9 NLT)
Our position in Christ also means that we take up His mantle to pray as He leads us. Jesus was given power and authority during His earthly ministry. He, in turn, has given His power and authority to believers to fulfill His Great Commission, as well as His mantle of Luke 4:18-19 and its ministry twin, Ephesians 4:11. Furthermore, Jesus tells us that we will do even greater works than He did while here on this earth. An essential part of these assignments involves prayer before we go, prayer while we go, and prayer after we’ve gone.
“For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son so that His Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, He called them to come to Him. And He gave them right standing with Himself, and He promised them His glory. What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” (Romans 8:29-31)
When you acknowledge, and then receive by faith, your position in Christ and walk in its truth, God will begin transforming you into a more secure and courageous Christian. Your new assurance will overcome any feelings of unworthiness and timidity that had kept you on the sidelines. Conversely, I have found that if a Christian does not fully grasp and then internalize his or her identity in Christ, that person will have a divided heart. A divided heart will create doubts and unbelief that will handicap a believer’s ability to be effective in God’s call on his or her life.
James tells us, “…a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. They can’t make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do.” (James 1:6-8 )
God wants to adopt “whosoever will” into His family as a child of the King and as a joint heir with Christ. This is a position of confident authority, no wavering back and forth. Therefore, understanding your position in Christ and accepting your destiny to rule and reign in God’s kingdom will revolutionize your Christian experience and your prayer life.
Heavenly Father, thank You for loving me and calling me into a relationship with You. I want to glorify You with effective prayer. So, LORD, I ask You to work the truths of Your Word into my life. Thank You that I can know You and come into Your presence with the confidence of a well-loved child. Thank You for trusting me with the authority and power to participate in Your kingdom plans and purposes. LORD, thank You that I am sinless in Your sight because of Jesus. Thank You for instilling in me a conqueror mindset so that I can pray effectively. My sinless position infuses me with the courage to storm heaven with Your Word, liberating people from Satan’s domain. Thank You for trusting me with Jesus’ power and authority so that I can do my part to fulfill His Great Commission. I want to proclaim the liberating gospel message so that I can bear good fruit for You. I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Learn more about Prayer in David McFadden’s “Prayer by the Book” - Available on Amazon.com by clicking here: Prayer by the Book
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