How To Start New Years - Image Bearer Ministries

This series challenges believers to take control over the narrative of their lives by embracing the “constitution” of the Christian faith, together with receiving and implementing God’s vision for their lives. Many Christians commonly react to circumstances and challenges in life without a real sense of God’s particular purpose, His tailor-made vision for their lives. The Christian life is meant to be intentional, not reactive, and therefore requires apprehending and executing the will of God amidst opposition. Not living reactively but purposefully is the posture of believers who consistently live out of the Christian “constitution: ” they “live no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.” (1 Peter 4:2) The series draws heavily from the book of Nehemiah, which provides a model of trusting God amidst opposition. Based on Nehemiah 4:16-23, where Nehemiah incorporated the “half-and-half approach” to rebuilding the wall, Christians are exhorted to build the city of God while they embrace sanctification. This synergistic strategy maximizes the results of ministry as God’s conforms the saints into the image of Christ. The intentional life of gainfully employed Christians embracing sanctification is the blueprint that all Christians should aspire to as we start off the new year.

The Full Series

Dump your God-complex and respond to His Power

January 20, 2025 No Comments

With a view to beginning the year right, this opening episode calls believers back to the fundamentals, the constitution. Typically constitutions enumerate the powers of government, and our U.S. constitution provides a separation of powers. A successful life in God’s eyes is founded on a separation of powers, where believers don’t presume on divine prerogatives but only fulfill their responsibilities prescribed in the Biblical separation of powers. Well constitutionally speaking, the Christian life rests completely on the power of God. 1 Pet. 2:3 states that “God’s divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life in godliness.” The successful Christian life abides in Christ, and out of the power of Christ, bears much fruit. (John 15:5) The fruit enumerated in 2 Pet. 1: 5-8 are all based on the Christian’s responsibility to access the power. Well when believers learn to operate in their proper domain, fulfilling their responsibilities through the power of Christ, many of the unnecessary headaches and heartaches that plague believers diminish. Things work better in the kingdom when we let God be God and appropriately respond to His power.

“Build, with God’s Power”

January 21, 2025 No Comments

This episode builds on the first episode, emphasizing that all sanctification is fundamentally drawing on the power of Christ provided in the resurrection. We were born again through the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3), and in sanctification, we progressively live out of the power that Christ has made available. “God’s divine power has given to us everything pertaining to life and godliness…” (2 Pet. 1:3) The episode exhorts believers not to make the tempting mistake of the Galatians who sought “to be perfected by the flesh” instead of drawing on the divine power. (Gal. 3:2-3) New Years’ resolutions often fail because they’re based on fleshly resolve and power. The episode closes with the a summary of the numerous qualities that Christians are to walk in, based on abiding in Christ and His power. Even the Christian response is based on God’s divine power. So, with respect to the constitutional metaphor, “separation of powers” doesn’t refer to a Christian’s response independent of God’s power, but merely highlights human responsibility to ACT, in response to God’s power.

Not Growing–Are You Blind and Short-sighted?

January 22, 2025 No Comments

This episode mostly deals with the believer’s response to the gift of divine power in 2 Pet. 1:5-8. Resting on God’s divine power, Christians should excel in 9 moral attributes, among them are moral excellence, self-control, and love. Peter concludes that those lacking these qualities are “blind or shortsighted, having forgotten the purification from their former sins.” Peter’s understanding of the gospel that saves is much more than mere forgiveness of sins, so he likely had much more than mere forgiveness in mind when he refers to “purification.” Peter includes the endgame of salvation in both 1 Pet. 1:2 and 1 Pet. 4:1-2, which is obedience and living for the will of God. Believers who apparently see “purification from their former sins” simply in terms of forgiveness, have missed the holistic emphasis of the gospel: God saves us FROM the penalty of sin FOR the will of God. Peter consequently assesses that Christians who only got half the message are “blind and short-sighted.” Christians should therefore honestly assess whether their lack of spiritual growth is due to a misunderstanding of the constitution, how things work in the Kingdom: growth in obedience to the will of God is the clear expectation of the gospel.

Not “Knowing” Means You’re not Growing

January 23, 2025 No Comments

Going deeper into the “constitution” of 1 and 2 Peter, this episode highlights how “true knowledge” or “experiential knowledge” is the goal of the Christian life, NOT the forgiveness of sins. What unlocks the divine power giving everything related to life and godliness? It’s the “true knowledge of the One who called us by His own glory and excellence.” (2 Pet. 1:3) Very interesting is that Peter concludes that those who excel in applying several moral qualities are “fruitful in the TRUE KNOWLEDGE of our Lord Jesus Christ.”(v. 8) The measure then of Christian maturity is growth in the knowledge of God where we partake of God’s moral attributes. (v. 4) He who lacks this growth is “blind and short-sighted,” for he lacks the “true knowledge” of God. The episode closes with the obvious question: do we really want the true knowledge of God?

Just Make it Simple

February 3, 2025 No Comments

This episode focuses on the singular objective that should consume every believer: doing the will of God. This is what should occur in salvation according to 1 Peter 4:1-2, in which Christians identify with what Christ has done for them at Calvary, and then proceed to “arm” themselves with the same purpose, which is “to live for the will of God.” Application of this simple but profound description of the Christian life would inoculate believers from unnecessary heartaches and wasted time, as we constantly look to Christ as the model. We arm ourselves with the purpose of Christ when we align our will with the Father’s, echoing “I have come to do Your will” (Christ’s words in Heb. 10:9) Very critically, believers are called not to live for the lusts of MEN, suggesting that believers don’t just practice self-denial with respect to their own lusts, but they also refuse to cooperate with other people’s self-centered desires.

Take Hold of the Narrative of your Life

February 3, 2025 No Comments

This episode, based on last weeks’ lessons, sets the stage for living the will of God this year. 1 Pet. 4:1-2 tells us that believers should no live for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. Yet the narrative of reacting to life too often describes our time year after year because we don’t gain the clear divine perspective for our lives. When we “seek those things above where Christ is seated” (Col. 3:1), we stop reacting to life’s circumstances based on a divine vision. This episode consequently emphasizes the prayerful pursuit of the will of God, with the end of establishing the narrative for our lives.