When we understand all that we are in Christ, we can form what evangelist Oral Roberts used to call a ‘faith-image’ of ourselves that will affect how we live. By reading the Scriptures and believing what they say, we can see ourselves as God sees us.

With such a faith-image, we can cope with life in a positive, confident way. We no longer regard ourselves in human terms, but in divine terms.

Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant…  (2 Corinthians 3:4-6).

Whatever God calls us to do he enables us to do. We are sinners who have failed and will continue to fail from time to time. But Jesus Christ has dealt with sin.

He has redeemed us from failure.

He has restored us to the position of competence and confidence that God ordained in the beginning.

By his dreadful death and timeless resurrection, he has enabled us to regain our true identity–including our dignity as creatures made in the image of God.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

For three months I clung to the promise of Jesus that believing prayer and laying on of hands would bring recovery (Mark 16:17-18).

Day after day I tried to do what it was impossible for me to do. Then one day, there was a slight movement. In fact, it was so undramatic that I hardly noticed. With a shock, I realized I was doing something that I couldn’t do before.

It was a very small thing–just sliding something across the floor. But I did it! (I have since learned that miracles often do occur in a non-sensational fashion.) Then, daily, strength returned.

Sometime later I met my doctor in the street–the one who had told me that faith could not heal organic injuries. I showed him how I could now lift my arm to shoulder height. ‘That’s remarkable!’ he said, a statement he repeated twice more during our brief conversation.  Today, my arm is fully restored.

I should add that I have no argument with medical practitioners. Quite the contrary. I owe my life to the expert care and attention I received after the accident. But there are times when even the most skilled physicians reach their limits.

With or without such expert attention, Jesus still calls us to trust in him.

‘Don’t be afraid. Just believe’ (Mark 5:36)

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

Inspired by Psalm 18, I once wrote this song. People seemed to enjoy its bright, positive mood.

Today I can be what he wants me to be,

By faith I can!

Today I can do what he wants me to do,

Without fear of man.

I can run through a troop,

I can scale a wall,

Bend a bow of bronze

And make my enemies fall.

I can be what he wants me to be,

By faith I can!

Maybe you are confronted by a wall right now. With God’s help you can scale it. He infuses you with necessary strength.

Psalm 18 talks about ‘standing on the heights’. This is another way of talking about reigning in life. It is impossible to live successfully when we feel that we are down in the valley, overcome by shadow, darkness, fear and despair.

Before we can actually live victoriously, we must see ourselves as being above the opposition. Or putting it another way, as seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus far above all demonic power or authority (Ephesians 1:20-23; 2:6).

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

The second great prayer of Paul’s in his letter to the Ephesians is in chapter three. He prays for five things.

• That we will be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit (3:16).
• That Christ will dwell within us (3:17)
• That we will be established in love (3:17)
• That we will understand the extent of Christ’s love (3:18)
• That we will be filled with all God’s fullness (3:19)

The extent of Paul’s prayers is almost over­whelming. What an incredible thing, for instance, that the Spirit of God should dwell in our inner beings! Yet God has chosen human bodies as the temples of his Spirit (1 Corin­thians 6:19).

Similarly, Paul prays that we will ‘grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ’ yet immediately goes on to point out that it ‘surpasses knowl­edge’! (3:18).

 How can you know the unknowable? Yet this is his prayer. Somehow, it’s possible.

Then finally, he asks that we might be filled with all of God’s fullness. Extraordinary! Yet really God wants to give us all he can of himself so that we fall short in no way whatever.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

What we can be is simply an extension of what we already are! Living in the image of God is not trying to be what we are not–it is just the opposite.

So I can live life saying to myself, ‘I am becoming what I am.’ This puts a whole new perspective on everything. If I see myself as I already am, because of what God has done for me, then I do not have to struggle for the impossible.

I can simply allow the blessings of God to work out through my life.

If I am already forgiven, blessed, adopted, graced, chosen, made alive, seated in heavenly places and so on, then I can accept this and live in the light of it. I simply become in practice what in Christ I already am.

Former plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz relates how while some people who came to him for facial surgery were utterly transformed as a result, others were not. With them, there was no noticeable difference. It was as if they had a ‘scarred soul’.

Although the physical deformity was repaired, the people still saw themselves as disfigured.

How they viewed themselves determined how they lived.

This is generally true no matter who we are.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

Living in the image of God means ruling in life. When impossible situations come our way, we should not necessarily give in to them.

Sometimes we need to run through a troop and leap over a wall by faith in God. How often Jesus talked about world-changing faith!

If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you (Matthew 17:20).

If you have faith and do not doubt… you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer (Matthew 21:21).

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you (John 15:7).

In all these statements, Jesus tries to extend us to the point where we really can believe that impossible things are possible. We do not necessarily have to accept difficulties and frustrations that come our

way. Circumstances can be changed. We can determine how we deal with them. We can reign in life!

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

We have a responsibility to handle our personal funds with care. Today’s credit card society lays many a trap for the unwary. Once you get on the borrow-to-buy conveyor belt it can be very hard to get off. Paul’s advice is still relevant: ‘Owe no one anything’ (Romans 13:8).

Some years ago, I closed off several department store accounts and determined to pay cash for everything. I felt a great sense of freedom. The borrower was no longer the slave of the lender! (Proverbs 22:7).

It was interesting that the stores concerned basically refused to accept my decision. Naturally, they prefer the credit system with its profitable interest charges.

The exercise of mastery in this area is really important. If you pay your credit cards in full every month, you may find yourself easily in control of your finances and better able to manage them. It is a matter of being in control.

How often are people prevented from giving to missions, or some other worthy cause, because they are fully committed already? Money should be a servant not a master! Freedom from debt is vital.

Borrowing to buy a house is probably an exception to the rule. But overall, paying as you go is the wise way.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

God’s original plan was for us to rule over the world and everything in it. He still wants us to live positively, productively, confidently and successfully.

When I was 19 years of age, I was involved in a serious motor cycle accident. I crashed into a tree and as a result suffered life-threatening, multiple injuries. My spine was fractured–in fact, I was within a whisker of being a quadriplegic. I fractured my skull, my left arm and my left shoulder blade. I had a ruptured spleen and a ruptured kidney plus shock and concussion.

Immediate surgery was necessary and for the next three days, I hovered between life and death.

Vanessa and I were unofficially engaged at the time. During the night of the accident, she had been sleepless with worry. She could not overcome her fear that I might die. In the small hours of the morning, the words of this text came to her mind–

‘In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us’ (Romans 8:37).

She accepted it as a word from God. She relaxed and slept deeply. Then she wrote out the text and next day brought it in to my bedside.

The words were an encouragement to me, too. It was the most desperate and potentially hopeless situation I have ever faced. Yet deep in my heart, I knew that I would pull through.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.