I have found that many Believers often live in a crisis mode.

They are worried about this thing and that. They are “calling out to God” for everything you can imagine.

No sooner do they get past that crisis and are back at it, storming the gates of Heaven or Hell, whichever they figure it will take.

There are several reasons for this kind of living. Let’s take a look at some of them and see that there is a way to live set free from crisis living.

In the Old Covenant, we see many cases of the leaders of the Nation of Israel calling out to the Lord for protection from their enemies. Sadly, they often didn’t realize that freedom and deliverance were theirs by right of their covenant with God.

The Old Covenant was a reciprocal arrangement. You kept the Law, and God could bless you. You broke the Law, and the curse would follow.

They would cry out for mercy and deliverance when the curse came along.

This kind of thinking and action has continued on into today. You hear it in hymns and songs and prayers.

“When you are in trouble, give God a call!”

God is often portrayed as someone you call out to for help when you figure you can’t get through it alone.

Prayers go out like this: “Lord, I need you to help me do this.” “God help us do this today.”

I remember a personal license plate on a car that read: “God is my Co-pilot.”

That attitude goes like this: “I can do it with a little help from you, Lord.”

Perhaps you might be thinking now, “so what’s the problem here?”

God is not your co-pilot or hired help!

Many Believers still think they are in the Old Covenant times when there was a whole different situation than we have today.

As a result, they go from crisis to crisis, looking for God to help them out of whatever situation they figure is not the way they think it should be.

Then when things don’t change right away, they surmise that they may need to “pray harder.”

Or they begin to panic mode, thinking that God doesn’t hear them, that they don’t have enough faith, that they have sinned in their life, or that they need to get a Prayer.

Chain going so that we can all gang up on God and make Him do what we figure should be done to resolve the situation.

What the Church needs to be taught these days is that we are not in the Old Covenant anymore!

In the New Covenant, we are in a different situation! We are not crying out across the universe for God to hear us. Why?

Because He lives IN us!

That’s what Paul was trying to teach the Jewish folk. He was trying to show them that we are now “in Christ.” That was and is the “mystery.”

The living Spirit of God indwells us.

We are “in Him.”

When we get onto the understanding of the “exchanged life,” we see that we are not out there trying to “do life” and calling out to God to help us out when we think we can’t do it.

We need to understand that He is living through us!

The reason, it seems, that so many are not experiencing the life that Christ came to give us is that they are trying to “live the Christian life

– with God’s help.”

The Christian life is, by definition, the “life of Christ.” So, for us to live the Christian life, Christ must live His life through us while we get out of the way.

That’s what is meant by the exchanged life. You have exchanged your life for His.

It’s not your life anymore

– you died!

The exchanged life begins with the death experience.

Our crucifixion with Christ has already taken place. You may say, “But I don’t feel crucified.” That’s alright. Dead people don’t feel dead. You have been crucified because God says you are, whether you feel like it or not.

In that verse Paul said that since he had been crucified with Christ, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”

When we exchange our life for Christ’s life, he expresses Himself in and through us.

When we think, Christ thinks through us. When we move, Christ moves through us.

When we speak, Christ speaks through us.

A complete exchange has occurred.

Jesus taught that a branch could not bear fruit; it needs the stock to feed that life through it to produce the fruit.

We can’t produce the fruit of the Spirit – it has to be Christ living through us, and us abiding in Him.

What does this all have to do with crisis living?

First, it keeps us from crisis thinking and praying. When you know that Jesus isn’t just holding your hand or walking alongside of you or ahead of you or in heaven just watching over you, but rather He is living His life through you, you will stop hollering across the heavens every time you figure things aren’t going right.

Secondly, you will realize that your life journey will work out for the best no matter what happens.

How the trip goes might not be how you may have planned it, but you are not the one in charge here. God has seen the road ahead and knows what’s coming long before you do.

Like that old radio/TV show named “Father Knows Best.”

Living by faith isn’t just being able to pull down strongholds. Rather it’s about trusting Christ to live His life through you in every situation.

It puts meaning to the term “making Jesus the Lord of your life.”

“Lord” means He is in charge, not you!

I’ve come across people who wanted “walking on the water faith” when what they needed to live was “walking on the ground faith.”

Stop fretting! Stop going from crisis to crisis, worried about everything!

Have you ever considered that most prayer seems to be fear-based? Fear that you will do without, that things won’t go as you want them to.

Like when the disciples were in that boat on the lake, fearing that if they didn’t “wake Jesus up” they would drown.

Jesus isn’t asleep!

So many people are afraid of death. Death is not a penalty for “getting it wrong.”

The death of our body is inevitable. You will physically die someday. God knows when that will be, and He has it all figured out. Don’t fear death. It’s just what’s next on your journey!

Jesus is more aware of what is going on in your life than you are. He has seen your whole life from the day you were conceived until the day you walked into his physical presence in Heaven.

Let Jesus be the Lord of your life, not your Co-pilot who takes over when you can’t do it. He is the Pilot!

The fact is you can’t do it so relax.

Once you grasp that He is living his life through you, you will not spend your life living from crisis to crisis.