How many of you hate phoniness? I have always been one of those who do. It’s at the top of my list of things I detest,  and I swore I would never allow in my life. How many times do we hear things like “I gotta be me.  I’m just real. Take me how you find me.” Being real is considered to be a real virtue.    

However, when it comes to spiritual things, we’ve missed the boat.The Bible says in Galatians 3:27 “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ”. It also says inEphesians 4:24And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Colossians 3:14 says,  “And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfection”.  Lastly, 1 Thessalonians 5:8 “But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet, the hope of saving health”. It also tells us to put off some things, but we’ll talk about that in another blog.  

The Apostle Paul In Ephesians 4, uses a very helpful figure in these two phrases, "put off" and "put on." Put offmeans to divest yourself of something, to take it off. When you go into your bedroom at night to get ready for bed, you put off your clothes and lay them aside. If you have a dirty & used garment, you put it off and put on something new. He is using the very simplest of terms to illustrate what we must do in the realm of thought and the attitudes of life. We must reject the stuff that has caused our trouble, putting them off, rejecting them, just as you would put off your dirty clothes.

We must do this because, from these wrong attitudes, the corruption of life comes. He says the former manner of life is corrupt. These are the things which have made life unhappy or miserable. They are "deceitful lusts." Unfortunately this word lust is greatly misunderstood in our day. We invariably associate it with something sexual. But this word is much broader than that. We could use the word urge. These deceitful urges are constantly coming to us as we react to various situations in which we find ourselves.

I want to concentrate on “putting on” in this blog. What most people call being real is just being real carnal.  They let it all hang out, and believe that God and people should have to put up with that. However, living the Christian life is all about being changed by God’s great grace, power, love, Word, and anointing. We have all the weapons we need to change.

People in the Bible who did great exploits always had to do some things to prepare.  Prepared means to pre-cut or to pre-form.  There is a time to dress differently, think differently, and act differently, until it becomes us.  If we are preparing to meet someone great, like the president, we have to dress for the atmosphere.  Sometimes you have to dress for the atmosphere that you have not yet stepped into, but want to. 

We need to put on fresh attitudes. It doesn’t matter how we feel or our natural personalities. Some people have not gotten the promotion yet, because they apply for the job like they come into church, not expecting anything. It’s time to put on expectancy in both places. 

Some people say they don’t like people assuming things about them.  Well, sometimes it is their step, face, touch, and their talk.  So, change it. Dress differently, talk differently, confess differently, and carry yourself differently, until it becomes you. 

The Bible talks about anointing your face with gladness. Take off those mourning clothes.  Learn to dance & stand up and participate whether you feel like it or not. Do that even when it seems that all hells is busting loose against you. Put it on until it becomes you. Become so familiar with it that you begin to walk in the fulness of it. Then, unmerited favor will begin to bring the blessing of God upon you from all directions. 

Don’t let your past effect your present or your future.  Don’t wear the past on you.  Don’t you let it keep you down. I don’t care what people say to you. When they talkabout your past tell them,  “that might have been me, but let me tell you who I am now. I am the head & not the tail, above and not beneath, blessed in the city & blessed in the field. I’m the blood -bought, washed church of the redeemed.  If God be for me, than who can be against me?  Greater is He who is on the inside of me, than He who is in the world. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That’s who I am”. It does not matter who I feel like I am. I am going to “put on” who the Bible says I am. I am an overcomer by the blood of the lamb & by my testimony. I cannot be defeated”.  

This isn’t about trying to fake people out to be someone you are not.  It’s about putting on who you really are and not letting the old you dominate anymore. You can put on love, put on faith, put on victory, and put on unselfishness. Yes, be real. Real Godly, not, real carnal. Instead of letting the old you hang out, let Jesus be seen. Put Him on!