Extraordinary People.

Written by Grace Bellingham, taken from Dr. Frederick A. Drummond's message The Extraordinary Christian.

(click here to listen to excerpts from this message)

By way of reminder, let me say, we are extraordinary people. We are the children of the Almighty Creator of the Universe and ordinary or average or mediocre is not the language that God uses about us! In fact He uses language like, ‘more than conquerors’, and ‘super abundant’, ‘abounding in grace’, ‘light of the world’, ‘salt of the earth’, ‘sons and daughters of God’, ‘heirs of God’, and ‘children of the promise’, and so much more.

God has not called us to live average, common lives. He says of us that we are a ‘new creation’ a ‘light source’ a ‘life source’ the very ‘scent of heaven’. None of us are just the average guy off the street; we are extraordinary, full of the Holy Spirit of God Himself and able to do all things through Christ Who strengthens us by His miraculous power flowing through us. There is real power there; we are super-abundant life receivers, light bearers! God has not called us to go with the crowd or flow with the majority. We are light sources, the Light of Life shines through us.

Have you believed the lie, Christian, that says, “I can’t, it isn’t, it won’t”? We are called to live extraordinary lives by faith, on purpose, moving from faith to faith and glory to glory all the time! We are called to be more than conquerors, decision by decision by decision. Not by some ‘super anointing’ but by super-abundant, extraordinary faith in God’s Word, all the time.

No one can live an extraordinary life for you. You must choose to live so: a conscious effort, renewing your spiritual mind daily. You must choose to get the old out and channel in new thoughts, the thoughts of God. This takes a hostile lifestyle change. A hostile takeover of your lifestyle! What are you doing to upgrade your lifestyle?

In II Peter 1:2-4, the Apostle Peter says, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge (how much more do we need to know) of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power (not trying to buck it up) has given to us all (that’s a lot) things that pertain to life and godliness (not sacrificial or self-righteousness), through the knowledge (there’s that need-to-know thing again) of Him who called us by glory and virtue (that’s a lofty calling in itself), by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises (there are specific promises that are ours, for our specific calling, to get that job done) that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature (by believing and standing on those promises, no matter what, we actually share in the Divine Nature of God, we become Christ-like), having escaped (we literally rise above it) the corruption that is in the world through lust.” There is life-changing power in the promises of God for each one of us Christian, and He fully expects us to embrace them and live expecting them to be fulfilled every day of our lives. It will completely change our perspectives about our lives.

By standing on the promises of God and allowing them to guide us through our life choices, we increase in our knowledge of God by experience, and His grace and His peace is multiplied in our lives. However, this only happens by standing on precious promises not faulty premises. Not what we are hoping to gain in life but what God has promised us according to our divine destiny. He has plans, and He is planning to fulfill them. All He needs from us is our agreement.

It is time for us to say, “I know better, don’t talk down to me, I’m partaking of the divine nature of God Himself and I will not lower myself to the level that you have chosen or that you are trying to impose on me”. It’s time to say, “I am called to glory and virtue, I am an extraordinary person partaking of the divine nature of God!” It is time to stand up and say, “No more, I won’t live in a way that is beneath me any longer, I’m rising up to extraordinary living and partaking of the divine qualities and character and abilities of God!”

In II Corinthians 3:18, Paul speaking, saying, “We all, with an unveiled face(the veil of flesh is gone), beholding as in a mirror (looking at ourselves in the mirror, we see) the glory of the Lord, are being transformed (this is where God is taking us) into the same image (the very image of Jesus) from glory to glory (every circumstance by every experience), just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Read Matthew 10:27-42 and realize that there is a price involved in partaking of the Divine nature, for His nature to become your nature. That process takes much stretching and changing and that takes pain and suffering in many ways on many levels in concert with the Spirit of God. Don’t forget that He is working in all things in your life according to the counsel of His own will for you. To get through that process, which takes a lifetime by the way, you must latch on to His promises concerning you and constantly see what is going on in your life through them. The energy that you put into stretching yourself must be in sync with God stretching you.

In II Peter 1:5-11 the Apostle continues on in his theme of partaking of the divine nature of God by exhorting us to be diligent to add to our faith virtue (excellence), to virtue knowledge (knowing God through experience), to knowledge self-control (real in the flesh), to self-control perseverance (see it all the way through), to perseverance godliness (partaking of the divine nature), to godliness brotherly kindness (treating others like we want to be treated), and to brotherly kindness love (as we know the greatest of these is love). He tells us that if we abound in these we will never be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. By adding to our faith diligently these attributes, we will gain greater understanding of God and just what it means to be like Him.

Remember, standing on the promises of God is essential, and if you can’t declare the ones that you are standing on right now then you aren’t partaking of the Divine nature of God. There are no two ways about it. That is what it takes.

The key to your extraordinary destiny is three-fold:

• Promise
• Without them you have nothing to stand on

• Performance
• For the promises to perform you must perform

• Pace
• You must keep pace with God and allow Him to do what He is doing.

In Ecclesiastes 3:1 it says that there is a season for everything and a time for every purpose under heaven, and then he lists all the things involved in those seasons and times. To be extraordinary people we must keep pace with what God is doing in our lives, allowing Him to perform His mighty works in us, as we work it out and excel to obtain the promises. God lines up all the things at the right time to accomplish His purpose during the proper season, and we live extraordinary lives as a result!

Too often we find ourselves fighting God because we are requiring Him to do something in the wrong season. We frustrate ourselves and become disappointed in God when the truth is, it isn’t the right season. Remember fruit only survives in its right season. We are not ordinary people called to live extraordinary lives, we are extraordinary people called to live extraordinary lives to the praise and glory of God. When the season is right, it all lines up.

Get excited with God about the season. If it is time to stretch, stretch. If it is time to grow, grow. If it is time to rest, rest. If it is time to bear fruit, bear fruit. Get excited about every stage of your Christian life and learn to walk in the peace that God is in control taking you where He wants you to go and making you into the image of His Own dear Son.

A good thing at the wrong time can be a killer. Choose to be extraordinary for God today and live high not low. God put eternity in our hearts and no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to the end. And there is nothing better than to rejoice, to do good and to eat, drink and enjoy the good of your labor, it is the gift of God (Ecclesiastes).