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The Great Exchange

If you’ve ever changed a diaper, you’ll understand this principle well: Change is not just about taking on the new; you’ve also got to put off the old as well.

When a child has soiled himself, you don’t simply add a clean diaper, perhaps a sprinkle of baby powder, no. You remove the old diaper, use a couple of wet wipes and then put on the new diaper.

Sometimes, as believers, it’s as if we think that by adding a few alleluias, we can mask the scent of our stinking attitudes. We can’t. True change, Gospel change, requires us to put off the old life and take on the new (Ephesians 4:23-24).

Jesus never died that terrible death so that we could add some baby powder but essentially carry on as we were before. He came that we might have life and life in abundance (John 10:10). Through Jesus we have the opportunity to walk in change. We can go beyond our natural abilities and live where God wants us to be. The redemption we have in Jesus results in practical change, it calls us to live at a higher level.

Our God paid such a price for us. His blood came and redeemed us from the curse and He did this to free us from captivity. If we are still living in captivity, although we are redeemed, then we are not living in all that He has for us.

Are you still living as a victim of illness? Do you still panic? Do you lack money? There’s more for you. You’ve been changed, transformed; you’ve undergone a metamorphosis. A broken family, lack, bondage, insufficiency, pain, debt, regret, shame and condemnation are not His will for your life.

Some of us don’t seem to really understand this. We have put on a new diaper without removing the old. We continue to crawl about like caterpillars, living our lives at the lowest level when our God is calling us to fly!

Society tells us that once we’ve reached adulthood, we are who we are and we can stop changing and settle in, but that’s not what the Gospel says. We’re called to be like Christ, and if that’s the case, there’s plenty of room for change in every one of us!

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