Why You Shouldn't Be Saying "I'm Only Human" | Wendy Backlund
As believers, we can easily look at our natural limitations and say, “I’m just human.” But Scripture tells us that something profound happened when we came into Christ. We became new creations, participants in His divine nature, with the Spirit of God dwelling within us.
Life Over Death
Wendy Backlund
This Sunday at Vida Church, Wendy Backlund shared a powerful message about Life Over Death and what becomes possible when we begin to recognize the reality of Christ living in us.
So much of the Christian life is not about trying harder to become something we are not. It is about awakening to what God has already placed within us through Christ.
Acknowledge What Is Already in You
Wendy began with Philemon 1:6:
“That the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.”
How does our faith become effective?
Not simply by trying harder, becoming a better speaker, or depending on our own abilities. It becomes effective as we acknowledge every good thing that is already in us in Christ.
Wendy shared something the Lord told her years ago as she wrestled with her own calling to teach:
“I want you to have more faith in My ability to anoint what you say than in your ability to speak.”
That changes where our confidence comes from.
Our confidence isn’t ultimately in our personality, experience, talent, or natural ability. Our confidence is in Christ in us.
You Are Not “Just Human”
One of the major themes of Wendy’s message was identity.
As believers, we can easily look at our natural limitations and say, “I’m just human.” But Scripture tells us that something profound happened when we came into Christ. We became new creations, participants in His divine nature, with the Spirit of God dwelling within us.
When our identity remains rooted primarily in our natural limitations, we can begin to live as though the natural realm has the final word.
But it doesn’t.
Romans 8:2 says:
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Wendy contrasted these two realities throughout the message: life and death.
There is a law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and believers have been invited to live from that reality.
What Beliefs Are Keeping You in a Box?
Jesus warned that human traditions can make the Word of God of no effect.
Wendy used the picture of a “box” created by traditions, assumptions, and belief systems that can keep us from experiencing and expressing what God has already placed within us.
Sometimes the limitation isn’t that God hasn’t given us enough. The limitation is that our thinking hasn’t yet caught up with what we’ve received.
What have we believed about ourselves?
What have we believed about what God can do through us?
What have we accepted as normal simply because we’ve experienced it for a long time?
The invitation is to allow God to renew our minds so that our thinking increasingly agrees with what Christ has already accomplished.
What Are You Magnifying?
Wendy also challenged us to pay attention to our testimony.
What are we continually talking about?
If we continually rehearse darkness, offenses, wounds, fear, or everything the enemy is doing, those things can begin to dominate our attention and our testimony.
But what would happen if we intentionally magnified life?
What is Jesus doing?
What has He placed inside of you?
What did He purchase for you?
What is true about you because you are now in Christ?
Our testimony doesn’t have to be defined by what darkness has done. It can be defined by what Jesus has done.
Let the Life in You Shine
Romans 8 speaks of creation being delivered from the bondage of corruption into “the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
That glorious liberty is something we are called to live from.
Wendy encouraged us to intentionally spend time with God, allow the Holy Spirit to renew our thinking, and become increasingly conscious of what Christ has placed within us.
Rather than continually identifying ourselves by our past experiences, wounds, failures, limitations, or circumstances, we can learn to acknowledge Christ in us.
There is life in you because Christ is in you.
So this week, pay attention to what you are magnifying. Pay attention to what you are believing about yourself. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal more deeply what Jesus purchased and what He has already placed within you.
Acknowledge Christ in you. Magnify life. Let His light shine through you.
Watch the Full Message
There is so much more in this teaching. Click here to watch Wendy Backlund’s full message, “Life Over Death.”
