Day One, January 12th – I Am in Christ

Day 1- I Am In Christ

Greetings to you all and happy New Year! It is incredible to think that we are already moving into 2026. Before I dive into today’s encouragement, I would like to take a moment to remind you of some points I discussed yesterday about this year’s annual fast. 

First, our theme. This year our fast is one of consecration. You may, of course, have personal prayer requests and areas of personal breakthrough that you are fasting over, and feel free to pursue the Lord on those areas. But as a church family, we are also consecrating or setting ourselves apart in preparation for God’s glory. The prophetic words over the last bit of 2025 were that God was about to visit Gateway with His glory. While we may not be sure how He will do this, we feel it is essential to set aside practices and mindsets that obstruct our view of God’s glory. We do ask for souls, transformation, healing, financial breakthrough, relational healing, and God’s love to touch our church family and community. But, like Moses, our corporate cry is “show us your glory.”

Second, choose how you will fast, and follow the guidelines in our handouts and fasting documents available below. We want to encourage everyone who calls Gateway home to lean forward and fast with us as we learn to posture ourselves in His Glory. 

On to today’s encouragement.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Paul writes that to be in Christ is to be a new creation. Former things are gone, and all things are new. David Garland writes that Jesus is the great divider of history. Many interpret this passage not only as about individual transformation but also, in Christ, as “there is” a new creation. A new kingdom ushered in by a great King. 

For a moment, let’s sit on this thought: Jesus, the great divider of history, your history. There was a time when you were in sin, in the world, in brokenness, or in bondage. But now you are in Christ, and as such, you are new and participate in the new kingdom that Jesus has established through his death and resurrection. You are in Him and therefore no longer in anything else. No person, memory, brokenness, or bondage can lay claim to you. In Christ, the new, your new, has come. 

Our fast isn’t one of earning God’s favor to experience His glory, nor is it a way to “hold our breath” until Jesus does what we want him to do Fasting is intentionally setting aside time to bring your flesh into a place of need to deliberately deny it and to focus on sustenance from your true source of life. In so doing, we also ask the Holy Spirit to reveal, to borrow Celebrate Recovery’s terms, the habits, hurts, and hang-ups that obstruct our view of His glory. 

With that in mind, one of the first obstructions is believing that His presence or His glory is far off. As if we must get to Him, but the promise is that we are in Him. We don’t have to ascend to Him or impress Him with worship or activities to enter His presence. We are already in Him, we have already been brought into His life, love, and glory. 

So, what does this mean, and how do we walk this out?

Psalms 139:24-25 says, 

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting!

We invite the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and our thoughts. The word “grievous” or oseb in Hebrew can mean sorrow, wicked, or idol. We can ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sorrowful, wicked, or idolatrous areas in our lives and, through our confession and repentance, remove them to consecrate ourselves. Righteousness is a work of Christ in us; consecration is our response in agreement with the righteousness given to us in Christ.  

Consecration removes the veils that obstruct our view of what we are already in. It removes the callouses on our hearts so we can feel His presence again. It quiets the competing voices for our attention so we can again hear the still small voice of our Father, revealing His love and His leading. It brings us into a posture of love, adoration, and wonder as our posture shifts from self-centeredness to worship. And it lastly awakens us to the life we possess in Him.  

You are no longer the sum of what you were, but now a new creation in union with who Jesus is. 

Take a moment and meditate on this prayer, “Jesus, thank You that in You I am a new creation. Reveal Your glory in who You are and who I am in You.”

Enjoy the fast! Remember, we plan to meet to worship the Lord together tomorrow night at 7 pm. Be sure to come out. 

All my love,

PL