Unique New Creation

The Holy Spirit struck me with a verse I had read many times but the Word came alive, the phrase new creation.  This comes from 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."  From this passage and the previous one we know that the old things have passed away but we have been made new creation's.  I believe God is hungering for us to come into the unique new creations that we are "in Christ", not attempting to be who we admire or diminish the ways that we are different from others.  New creations are creative because He is creative, God is seeking to birth a unique union of you and Christ such that the revelation of who God is through you has never been seen on the earth.  The world system seeks to conform us (Romans 12:2) to it's image, which if I believed the commercials and used all the products- I would be taking a ton of prescriptions, be overweight, always trying to fix my problems, needing to get a new car to be somebody, and fully wound up on caffeine daily.  Conforming to the world means being busy because that is what you are supposed to be, constantly trying to improve your image and look, suppressing any emotions that aren't happy or fine, working for money, and being totally in control of your life.  We are unique new creations in Him and we are in the process of being revealed through encounters with the Holy Spirit where we see who He uniquely is in our lives and we see who we are.  

Maybe I am the only person that admires others like Bill Johnson and Randy Clark, seeking to be like them (which is good) but missing out on the uniqueness of Christ in me.  I love learning about our identity "in Christ" and who the Word of God says we are but there is also a frustration inside when this becomes formulaic and misses the special way Christ is being revealed through a one in 7 billion person.  There is a deep hunger in my heart for the creativity that comes as God paints on the canvas of a life His grace, a personal redemption story that sings a sweet song to others of who are God is.  In the movement I am a part of, I love the prophetic bent where you can see people be awakened by words that tap into the unique God-given true self that is often hidden deep inside.  In Romans 8, it does not say the whole earth is groaning, we are groaning, and the Spirit is groaning for the revelation of the soldiers of God, or the slaves of God, or even the servants of God, the Word says for the revelation of the sons.  The truth is in a family each son or daughter is unique (even if they are "identical twins") with their own personality, quirks, dreams, gifts, talents, and desires.  Each child in a biological family carries the DNA of the parents but still the uniqueness is something you can't miss and the world in all it's attempts can match.  There are certainly things we share as human beings and as people of God, these are important and need to be highlighted.  Jesus often put two truths in tension (a paradox), yet others felt you had to have one or the others.  Jesus battled this dualistic thinking but presenting two opposite but completely compatible truths, such as be perfect and you are totally acceptable.  You are to be conformed in the image of Christ, yet you are a unique new creation that has an expression of God's nature that is special and cannot be copied by another.

A Unique New Creation,
Bret