I Have Zoe Part 2 - Mercy Conference 2026 by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Releasing the life of God

The Bible declares in 1 John 5:11-13 that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Those who have the Son have life. This teaching explores what it means to not just possess the life of God, but to release it and manifest it in our daily experience.

TWO KINDS OF BIRTH

Scripture identifies two kinds of birth that bring us into different realms of existence. John 1 tells us that believers are born not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God. In John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And 1 Peter 1:23 speaks of being born of the incorruptible seed of the word.

Just as biological birth is the official way to access physical life, spiritual birth (being born again) is the official way to access the life of God. But there are critical differences between these two births:

First, in biological birth, the baby has no say in the decision - it depends entirely on the parents. But in spiritual birth, it is entirely the individual's decision. Your parents may not like your salvation, but if you choose, you can be born again.

Second, biological birth takes approximately nine months. But spiritual birth happens instantly at the moment of believing. Jesus told the thief on the cross, "This day you will be with me in paradise" - not next week or ten years later.

Third, biological birth has a validity period called your lifetime - from birth until death. But spiritual birth only has a starting date. Once you are born again, it begins eternally. There is no expiration date on the life of God.

UNDERSTANDING ZOE: THE DIVINE LIFE

The Bible uses three primary Greek and Hebrew words to describe different kinds of life:

Bios refers to biological or plant life - the natural life we see all around us in creation.

Psuche refers to soul or psychological life - the realm of consciousness, will, emotion, and intellect. This is what makes us aware, thinking beings.

Zoe refers to the divine life - and this is what sets Christianity apart from every other religion and philosophy. But Zoe is not simply "God's kind of life," because all life originates from God. Rather, Zoe is God's VERY life - the essence of who He is.

When we talk about Zoe, we are describing every attribute in God that He has freely given to man to upgrade us to function in the God class. It is an overall system that lifts us from being earthly, fleshly, and limited by the struggles of life. Through a transformational process, we become possessors and manifesters of the very attributes that make God who He is.

This is not to say we become equal with God. There are attributes God did not share with humanity. He alone is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing - He does not learn, improve, or evolve), omnipresent (everywhere at once), and self-existent (needing no external source for His existence or sustenance). We need oxygen, food, sleep, and relationships. God sits in a class entirely His own.

But within the boundaries of what God HAS made available to us, Zoe represents a complete upgrade - a divine transplant that changes our very nature and capacity.

THREE TESTS TO VERIFY YOU HAVE ZOE

Not every upgrade in life qualifies as Zoe. Wealth can improve your quality of living. Education can open doors. Strategic relationships can advance your career. Political connections can give you influence. But none of these constitute the divine life.

How can we know if the life we have received is truly Zoe? Scripture gives us three tests - three essential characteristics that must all be present:

Test #1: You Must Be Born of God

John 1:13-14 tells us that believers are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. This means God Himself has assumed the responsibility of fatherhood over your life. You are not just improved or educated - you have a new Father, a new source, a new origin.

The Scripture says, "He that cometh from above is above all." When God becomes your Father, you inherit His DNA. You carry His nature. This is not symbolic - it is a spiritual reality that changes everything about how you function.

Test #2: You Must Be Born of the Spirit

John 3:3-6 explains that we must be born of the Spirit. This means that through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, your mind and spiritual faculties can now import and manifest divine possibilities. Wisdom beyond your education. Favor that defies logic. Understanding that surpasses your experience. Power that transcends human ability.

The Holy Spirit works to produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He transforms your character to reflect Christ. Where you were once controlled by anger, you now walk in peace. Where you struggled with unforgiveness, you now extend grace freely.

Test #3: You Must Be Born of the Incorruptible Word

1 Peter 1:23 declares that we are born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which lives and abides forever. The Word of God brings balance and verification to your spiritual experiences.

Many spirits seek our attention in the spiritual realm. The Holy Spirit is not the only voice trying to reach us. This is why we need the Word as a spiritual immigration system - it examines every thought, every voice, every impulse, and determines what is allowed to enter and influence our destiny.

This is critical: It is written is greater than "I saw." It is written is greater than "I heard." It is written is greater than "I feel." What has been written in Scripture has been tested and verified. What you saw, heard, or felt has not necessarily been tested. The Word keeps us anchored in truth.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POSSESSING AND RELEASING ZOE

Here is a crucial truth many believers miss: You don't access Zoe through fasting. You don't access it through prayer. You don't access it through Bible reading or any spiritual activity. Zoe is accessed through one means alone - receiving the gospel by faith. It is a gift.

When you believe the gospel - the declaration of the Father's love demonstrated through the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus - you receive three gifts simultaneously:

First, you receive the forgiveness of sins. Second, you receive the gift of righteousness - the very nature of Christ. Third, you receive Zoe - the life of God transplanted into your spirit.

But here is where many believers get stuck: possessing this life is instant, but releasing it is a gradual process that depends on growth, knowledge, and engagement with kingdom principles.

Psalm 82:5-7 gives us a sobering warning: "I have said, you are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like mere men and fall like one of the princes." In other words, you can have divine life and still experience defeat if you don't know how to release it.

Galatians 4:1 adds this insight: "An heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a slave, though he be lord of all." You can be genuinely saved, truly born again, and yet your experience doesn't change because you haven't learned how to activate what you possess.

Think of it like owning a smartphone. You may have a powerful device in your hand, but if you don't know how to download and use the applications, you're only accessing a fraction of its capability. Many believers are living far below their spiritual capacity simply because they've never been taught how to release the life of God that already resides within them.

KEY #1: BUILD A ZOE CONSCIOUSNESS

The first and most critical key to releasing the life of God is developing what Scripture calls consciousness. The Greek word is logismos, which means to reckon yourself - to come into a settled awareness of who you are.

Romans 6 instructs us to "reckon yourselves dead to sin." This is not pretending. This is not positive thinking. This is building a consciousness based on spiritual reality.

Let me illustrate: If I were to call a woman a man, she wouldn't cry or get upset. She would likely feel sorry for me and wonder if I need medical help. Why? Because there is a consciousness in her - reinforced by a lifetime of biological evidence - that she is a woman. So when a wrong word comes, that word is dead on arrival because it encounters an immovable consciousness.

The same principle applies spiritually. When temptation whispers that you're a failure, when circumstances scream that you're defeated, when your background argues that you'll never amount to anything - these words should die on arrival because they encounter the consciousness of who you truly are in Christ.

How Consciousness Is Built:

Consciousness is developed through three primary channels:

Your eye gate - what you look at and behold. The Bible says, "As we behold Him as in a mirror, we are transformed from glory to glory." Standing in the presence of what you want to become transforms you.

Your ear gate - what you listen to. Be careful what voices you give access to your mind. Not every voice deserves your attention.

Your mouth - what you confess. This is one of the major assignments of confession (Greek: homologia). You repeat what you have heard from God's Word until you become one with it. You speak it until it becomes your settled reality.

This is why Scripture says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." Not just think it. Not just believe it quietly. Say it. Declare it. Let your ears hear your mouth agreeing with what God has said.

Breaking Wrong Consciousness:

Many believers have been victims of wrong consciousness. Perhaps parents spoke limiting words over you. Perhaps society labeled you. Perhaps your past failures created a narrative in your mind. Perhaps your bloodline carries patterns of poverty, sickness, or early death.

The first warfare is not against demons - it's against thought patterns. You can cast out a demon with one authoritative word. But breaking free from strongholds in your mind requires a systematic re-engineering of your thoughts.

You can be delivered from Egypt in one day, but if Egypt remains in your mind, you'll still die in the wilderness. You were delivered, but you're still defeated because your consciousness never changed.

This is why it's critical to identify where you got what you believe about yourself. If it didn't come from Scripture, it has no authority over you. Your confidence must be derived from the Word of God - that's where your true identity is found.

KEY #2: ZOE EMPOWERS YOU TO LIVE LIKE CHRIST

The life of God - Zoe - empowers the believer to do two things: live like Christ and function like Christ. These are not the same thing, and both are essential.

Living Like Christ: Victory Over Sin and the Flesh

To live like Christ means you are empowered to rise above the grip of sin and the grip of the flesh. Notice the language: not to battle with it, not to endure it, not to white-knuckle your way through temptation - but to rise ABOVE it.

Let me be painfully honest: what is happening in much of the church today is not victory over sin. It is hypocrisy and endurance. We are not called to endure and fight in our own strength. We are called to rise above through the power of the life within us.

Many believers live in a constant cycle of falling and getting back up, falling and getting back up. There is a better way. There is a consciousness, an empowerment from the Holy Spirit, that lifts you above the struggle.

This doesn't mean you won't be tempted. Jesus was tempted in all ways, yet without sin. The difference is that temptation loses its power when there is no corresponding seed of sin within you to respond to it. When you are truly dead to sin and alive to God, temptation finds nothing in you to latch onto.

Think about it this way: If you are not hungry, the temptation to turn stones into bread is meaningless. Temptation only works when it finds something in you to activate. The life of God transforms you so deeply that what once had power over you now finds no place to take root.

This is where the church needs a major shift. We need to move beyond managing sin to demonstrating victory over it. The world will see Christianity as relevant when they see believers who genuinely reflect the nature of Christ - not people who are just good at hiding their struggles.

The Fruit of the Spirit: Evidence of Zoe

Galatians 5:22 lists the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. This is what the life of God produces in a yielded vessel.

You must seek to allow the nature of Christ to find full expression in you. The software is already inside you - it was installed the moment you were born again. You release it by carrying the consciousness we just discussed, by your confession of faith, and by actively engaging your will to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.

Consider the transformation this brings: Where your family line is characterized by anger, you now walk in peace. Where your culture celebrates revenge, you practice forgiveness. Where your peers compete and claw for position, you serve and prefer others. This is not behavioral modification - this is the life of God manifesting.

KEY #3: ZOE EMPOWERS YOU TO FUNCTION LIKE CHRIST

Beyond living like Christ in character, Zoe also empowers you to function like Christ in demonstration. There are three primary ways this happens:

1. Think Like Christ

Philippians 2:5 instructs us: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." This is not about intelligence or IQ. It's about adopting the thought patterns, perspectives, and wisdom of Christ.

When you think like Christ, you don't panic in crisis. You don't respond with fear when circumstances look impossible. You see situations through the lens of kingdom truth rather than natural limitations.

2. Speak Like Christ

James 3 tells us that if a man offends not in words, that man is a perfect (mature) man, able to bridle his whole body. Our words are powerful indicators of our spiritual maturity.

But more than just controlling our speech, we must learn to speak like Christ spoke - creatively, authoritatively, prophetically. God is a creative Spirit. When Jesus walked the earth, He created possibilities with words. He spoke to storms and they obeyed. He spoke to sickness and it left. He spoke to dead things and they came to life.

This is not a Pentecostal distinctive or a "Word of Faith" technique. This is how believers are designed to function. Consider Ezekiel standing before the valley of dry bones. God asked, "Can these bones live?" Then God gave an instruction: "Prophesy."

How do you turn chaos into victory? Prophesy. How do you program a day to work well? Speak to it. How do you cancel negative programmings and demonic infrastructures? Use your words.

From this day forward, function like the talking spirit you are. Don't keep quiet when you should be speaking life, declaring truth, and establishing kingdom reality.

3. Do the Works of Christ

When Jesus's disciples asked what the works of God were, He answered: "This is the work of God, that you believe." The works of Christ are a tripartite combination of wisdom (spiritual knowledge), faith (the fortitude to believe and engage God's laws), and power (the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that seals your words and actions with supernatural results).

The works of Christ include seeing people saved, healed, and delivered. They include walking in righteousness and diligence in your daily work. They include manifesting the glory of God in every sphere of influence - whether spiritual on the pulpit, intellectual in your workplace, or relational in your home.

The earnest expectation of creation awaits the manifestation of the sons of God. The world is waiting to see believers who don't just talk about Zoe, but who demonstrate it in every area of life.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

When you declare "I have Zoe," you are saying far more than "I'm going to heaven when I die." You are declaring that by reason of receiving Jesus Christ, you have been empowered by both the Spirit and the Word to live like Christ and function like Christ.

Living like Christ means the nature of Christ finds expression in your daily life. His love, His peace, His patience, His kindness - these become your normal experience, not occasional achievements.

Functioning like Christ means His wisdom finds expression through your thinking, His creative power through your speaking, and His works through your actions. You walk in divine wisdom in the marketplace. You speak life over dead situations. You see the impossible become possible because the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you.

Every time you submit yourself to consistent prayer, you create a channel for Zoe to flow. Every time you study the principles of the kingdom, you build capacity for greater manifestation. Every time you gather corporately with other believers, you position yourself to receive and release more of this life. Every time you serve in the church, you practice releasing what you carry.

The Christian life is not about trying harder to be good. It's about yielding to the life within you. It's about cooperating with the Holy Spirit as He transforms you from glory to glory. It's about building the consciousness that what God says about you is more real than what you see, feel, or have experienced.

A Prayer for Manifestation:

Father, I pray that the life I have received through salvation would empower me to live out the nature of Christ. I ask that it would swallow up every weakness and every limitation in my life. I receive the grace to think like Christ, to speak like Christ as a life-giving spirit, and to walk in extraordinary results and exploits.

May my transformation surprise the people who knew me before. May the character of Christ be so evident in my life that people are drawn to Jesus just by observing how I live. May I demonstrate in the marketplace, in my home, in every sphere of influence, that I carry the very life of God.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Final Declaration:

The same power that conquered the grave lives in me. The same love that rescued the earth lives in me. I am not ordinary. I carry Zoe. I dispense Zoe. I reign by Zoe. And I will live like Christ and function like Christ all the days of my life.