Embracing the Fullness of Your Calling in ChristSample

Identity: Citizens and Saints

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” Ephesians 2:19 (ESV)

We are no longer who we used to be. Whatever sins we committed, darkness and disobedience we were in, or how we conducted ourselves as citizens of the world, we are now alive from the dead, part of one new man — saints and citizens of God’s household.

Our new identity becomes our experience as we allow God’s word to work itself out in our everyday lives, but we can not do it ourselves. God designed us as individual members of one body that cannot function fully without the other parts.

As members of the household of God and the body of Christ, we are meant to do life together in community and to worship God in unity. Not only for our sake but also to build a dwelling place for God in the Spirit. When we unite in worship, we establish a spiritual dwelling place for the Lord.

In community, we find connections and accountability, which help us grow in our identity. We learn by the example of others who are further along in the walk how to live as sons and daughters of God, citizens, and saints.

However, being a member of the body of Christ and a part of a community does not guarantee we will thrive in our new identity. We are saved by grace through faith, and it is only by God’s grace and love that we gain the spiritual power to live out the reality of our new identity. Paul knew this to be true, so he prayed that our Heavenly Father would grant us strength and the spiritual capacity to be filled with God’s fullness through His power working in us, so He can do exceedingly, abundantly above all we dare to ask or think.

Prayer: Father, according to the riches of your glory, please grant me to be strengthened with power through your Spirit in my inner being so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith—that I, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled with all your fullness.