The Triumphant Christian Part One (our Destiny In Christ) by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Seven Channels Through Which God Ministers To His People

There are at least seven channels through which God ministers to his people in any prophetic meeting.

1. Prayer — when we invest time in prayer, the Lord rides through our faith in prayer and reaches down to meet our needs.
2. Heartfelt praise and worship — believers get carried away asking and asking for things and forget that when you take time to minister to the Lord, many times you would not even need to ask again, because when that glory rests upon you, it comes with answers.
3. Testimonies — the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Every time you hear what God has done in the life of another, it can provoke faith in you for the replication of the same.
4. Giving — when you give, you connect to the supernatural flow. Faith and obedience connect you to wisdom, understanding, favor, and strategic opportunities way before any material resource.
5. The word — the word comes with power. It gives understanding, illumination, and empowerment. It quickens your understanding and realigns your perspective so you see God and the kingdom from a superior light.
6. The prophetic — the entire scope of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, whether prophecy, healings, or miracles.
7. Fellowship — gestures of love and kindness between believers are spiritual. Koinonia is not just vertical, it is vertical and horizontal. We receive from God, but we also receive from one another.

Our Destiny In Christ

Ephesians 2:1-10

Colossians 1:12

Romans 8:30

All over the world people wake up and run around all through the day, and for the most part the motivation behind their striving is that they are hoping to make a living, to make ends meet, to find meaning. To the degree they achieve those goals they are encouraged, and to the degree they fail, they are frustrated. Doctors are overwhelmed by the psychological cases that speak to the fact that people are depressed and confused as they try, in every way they know, to make progress in life. Marriages have been torn apart because there seemed to be no hope of advancement. This immediately suggests that we have missed something as far as God's blueprint for how life should be lived is concerned.

The Destiny Of The Man Without Christ

The Bible categorizes men in various ways — by age, by knowledge, by wealth. But spiritually speaking, the Bible categorizes people into two groups: saved and unsaved, dead and alive, slaves to sin and Satan, or free.

Ephesians 2:1

Ye who were dead in trespasses and sins had he quickened and made alive. This is God's categorization based on salvation, not necessarily spirituality.

The man without Christ has three major problems.

1. He is considered spiritually dead

   He does not have the life of God, nor a functional connection and relationship with his source. No matter how accomplished physically, no matter how successful, this is the first diagnosis of any man without Jesus Christ.

   There are at least three levels of life discussed theologically: bios, the biological life that comes by physical birth; psuche, the psychological life or consciousness; and zoe, the life of God, which comes only when a person is grafted into Christ through the new birth. The man outside of Christ has bios and is conscious psychologically, but he is spiritually dead.

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   Every creature has a habitat, the habitat of its origin, and it must remain within that habitat for survival and maximum efficiency. The fish must remain in water. The tree must remain rooted in the earth. When God created man, he brought man out of himself, meaning it is only when a person is truly connected back to source that they can maximize their life and live efficiently.

   John 15:1-4

   Jesus said, I am the vine, my father is the husbandman, and every branch that abides in me bears fruit, but no man can bear fruit except he abides in the vine. A man cut away from his spiritual habitat will eventually experience a side effect.

2. He is legally under the dominion and captivity of sin, Satan, the flesh, and the forces of darkness

   This is not necessarily because a person is bad, it is by reason of the fallen nature. Outside of Christ, there is no legitimacy to indefinitely keep Satan, sin, and demonic forces at bay. A person can use therapy, medical help, or psychology to manage bondage, but no man can experience lasting freedom from the dominion of sin, of Satan, of the flesh, of demonic forces legitimately, outside of Christ.

3. His destiny beyond this life is doom and damnation

   Such a man does not have what the Bible calls the blessed hope. The Bible is very clear that the eternal destiny of anyone without Jesus is doom and damnation.

   Romans 2:5

   Because of the stubbornness of an unrepentant heart, a man is heaping up wrath against himself for the day of God's righteous judgment.

   John 3:36

   He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

   Matthew 25:45-46

   Revelation 21:8

   The fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. This is the second death.

Sometimes we pride ourselves in our achievements and accolades, and it blinds us from seeing that there is a need for Jesus in our lives. For many people, Jesus has subliminally become a solution reserved for the poor, the defeated, the jobless — a ladder used until life becomes comfortable, and then set aside. This is a very destructive orientation.

The Bible tells of a rich young ruler — rich, young, and ruling, with dominion and influence — who still came to Jesus and asked what he must do, because he was wise enough to know that in spite of all he had, there was still a void. There is a void God created in every man that only he can fill. People pursue money, vices, and addictions attempting to fill that void, and it does not fill it. That void is a space only Jesus can fill.

Why Jesus? Why Salvation?

The Bible calls Jesus many things: Savior, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, the Reconciler, the ultimate portrait of God's love toward man. John 1:1 calls him the Word.

1. The Son of God

   Romans 1:3-4

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   Apostle Joshua Selman

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   Concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness.

2. The Author and Finisher of our faith

   Hebrews 12:2

   He does not start and leave someone else to finish. There is no one else who can start your journey and finish it successfully with you.

3. The Savior of the world

   1 John 4:14

   We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

4. The Mediator between God and man

   1 Timothy 2:4-5

   There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Every time there is anything wrong between men and God, Jesus is not a recommendation, he is the only solution.

Acts 2:36

Peter, speaking after the outpouring of the spirit, said that God had made that same Jesus, whom they crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Salvation, within the context of the new birth, is literally a yanking out from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Acts 4:12

Salvation is found in no other name, for there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved.

There are many doors that lead out of a building, but if the owner of the property points to one door and says this is the one to follow, he does not guarantee your safety on any other door. God searched for what to give as proof of his love — not an angel, not the streets of gold — and he gave Jesus. To ignore Jesus is to have ignored the greatest gift God gave.

Jesus the way is God's recommended path that leads to life. Jesus is not just a person, he is also a pathway, God's pathway that leads to victory. It is possible to know Jesus the person and not know Jesus the way — to have a functional relationship with him and yet not walk in victory.

Receiving Jesus also means being willing to adopt the values of the kingdom — kindness, justice, love — the values that transform families, institutions, and society. Every good and disciplined person a believer looks for in a spouse or a colleague is, in truth, a search for a combination of the virtues that only the spirit of Christ can give.

Who Is A Christian?

There are only three direct mentions of the word "Christian" in the New Testament.

1. Acts 11:26 — the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
2. Acts 26:28 — King Agrippa said to Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. You do not merely advise men to be Christians, you persuade them; it is a compelling power of the spirit.
3. 1 Peter 4:16 — yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf.

A Christian is a believer in and a follower of Jesus Christ — one who has consciously received salvation by believing the gospel and placing his faith in Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:1-7 gives the most concise presentation of the gospel: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures, and was seen by Peter, by the twelve, by above five hundred brethren at once, and lastly by Paul.

A Christian is one who is born again, made a recipient of God's life, and a partaker of God's divine nature. There is a natural birth and there is a spiritual birth. In natural birth, the baby does not decide to be born, but spiritually the one being born decides to be born. Natural birth takes nine months; spiritual birth is instant. Natural birth carries a lifetime with an end; spiritual birth has no validity period.

The life you have received gives you the power to become — the power to become sons of God, custodians of his life, manifesting his character. To function like Christ means a display of the wisdom of the spirit at work in mortal, ordinary men, commanding fearful results.

A Christian is one who has received the forgiveness of sin, received the righteousness of God, and is now being empowered by the life of God through his spirit to live like Christ, manifesting the fruit of the spirit, and to function like Christ, manifesting his wisdom and his mighty works.

Classification Of The Believer

Believers in Christ generally have a two-fold classification. Classification based on identity describes the extent of your oneness with Christ — words like "the vine and the branches," "heirs of God," "the righteousness of God in Christ." These are nature descriptions. Classification based on function uses words like kings, priests, light, salt, witnesses, ambassadors — action words that carry responsibility.

• Sons of God — John 1:12-13
• The righteousness of God in Christ Jesus — 2 Corinthians 5:21
• Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ — Romans 8:16-17
• A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people — 1 Peter 2:9
• Ambassadors of Christ — 2 Corinthians 5:20
• Kings and priests — Revelation 5:10
• Light and salt — Matthew 5:13-16
• His workmanship — Ephesians 2:10
• Witnesses — Acts 1:8

The Hope Of His Calling

Ephesians 1:16-18

Paul prayed that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ would give unto believers the spirit of wisdom and revelation, the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, that they may know the hope of his calling. The hope of his calling is maturity and stature through sonship — that as you are saved, you grow to attain maturity to a point where you become a witness and an ambassador, a victorious believer.

When a father has a child, the father has hope over the child — a destiny he desires for the child, but he cannot force the child into it. He furnishes the child with every resource, but it is up to the child to choose whether to grow into that experience. This is why the Bible calls it the hope of his calling rather than a guarantee.

Psalm 49:20

Man that is in honor and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish. God can ordain great things for you in Christ. He brought you into Christ not unto slavery, not unto defeat. It took victory to bring salvation to you.

You truly know maturity in the spirit not merely by acquisitions, but by the trust that comes with assignments — when God can trust you with his program over a nation, family, or territory.

I speak over your life: victorious in the name of Jesus, with dominion, a child of God, a believer in Christ.

The believer's identity is the cure for inferiority. It cures competitiveness when you know how valuable you are. What God has said about you, he does not plan to change. If he called you son, you remain son. If he called you light, you remain light.

• I have a great destiny in Christ.
• I can fail alone, but I found a key: me and God cannot fail together.
• I am no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God.

If you want to be a triumphant Christian, anything triumphant in the kingdom is rooted in Jesus. You cannot experience triumph outside of Jesus. Whether dejected or beaten down, or accomplished and enlightened, the answer to every question — dejection, alienation, confusion, oppression — is still Jesus.

When Jesus comes into a life, he re-engineers your destiny and reveals to you the hope of God's calling for you. Few people who are great today in ministry or business had a leverage of greatness by default — most started from nothing, foolish enough to believe in Jesus, not even understanding what they were doing, and only later discovered what had been placed within them. Some have been born again for years without drawing anything out of that well of salvation, while others have drawn favor, grace, and wisdom by the spirit, and with it are serving the nations and walking in victory.

Salvation Prayer

• Lord Jesus, tonight I declare that I love you with all my heart.
• I believe you are the Son of God, that you died for my sins, and that you rose again for my justification.
• Right now I receive you into my heart as my Savior, my Lord, my King.
• I declare that the power of sin, Satan, hell, and the grave is broken over my life from tonight.
• I declare that I am a child of God, washed by the blood of the Lamb, and from tonight I live for Jesus all the days of my life. Amen.

Upon your profession of faith and confidence in Jesus, the power of sin, Satan, hell, and the grave is broken over your life. You are, from today, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You go forward ever, and backward never, in the name of Jesus Christ.