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Altogether, they trekked 127 days. On the return journey, as Shackleton records in The Heart of the Antarctic, the time was spent talking about food -- elaborate feasts, gourmet delights, sumptuous menus. As they staggered along, suffering from dysentery, not knowing whether they would survive, every waking hour was occupied with thoughts of eating.
Jesus, who also knew the ravages of food deprivation, said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for RIGHTEOUSNESS." We can understand Shackleton's obsession with food, which offers a glimpse of the passion Jesus intends for our quest for righteousness. Once someone becomes born-again, they should immediately be introduced to the subject of righteousness; otherwise, we run the risk of creating believers who follow a form of religion without power. Instead of majoring on things to abstain from, the church should introduce the dynamic transformation that occurred in the human spirit at the time of conversion – the image of righteousness. You see, their human spirit became a brand new entity.
That entity was forged in righteousness. One author defines righteousness as the ability to stand in the presence of the Father without the sense of guilt, inferiority or condemnation, as though sin never existed. Righteousness denotes right standing. If two people held grudges against one another and then forgave each other, they would be in right standing with each other afterwards. Sin kept us separated from the Father, but the blood of Jesus has cleansed us from that separation. We stand right in our relationship to Him.
Some individuals fall into the trap of saying their sins are under the blood. Don't say that! Our sins are not under the blood. If they were under the blood, they would still be present. But, thanks be to God, they no longer exist. They have been washed away. No record documents our sins. The precious blood shed for us totally cleansed us as though they never occurred. We need to build that into our consciousness.
If we do not possess a righteousness-image, we will live on the same level of life as unbelievers. Someone may be born-again and on their way to heaven, but can still live far below their rights and privileges as a child of God. Without understanding of this subject we will continue to identify with the weakness and limitation of Adam rather than the strength and confidence of Jesus.
How important is this subject? The Father thought it was so important to make you righteous, He sent His only Son to die in order to make that happen. The Son thought it so important for you to become righteous that He willingly became the sacrifice and substitute for us. The present day ministry of the Holy Spirit teaches us how to walk in the abundant life that righteousness gives us. Do we esteem or pursue righteousness with the same priority?
Our righteousness is not OUR righteousness. According to Isaiah chapter sixty-four, our righteousness was as filthy rags. So, we gave them to Jesus and He gave us what He had – a robe of God's righteousness. Our righteousness is God's righteousness through the sacrifice Jesus paid for in His death, burial and resurrection (2 Corinthians 5:21). We were MADE His righteousness through Him. Jesus took our separation and gave us His union with the Father. He became our sin that we might become His purity. Glory to God!
Righteousness is the key to spiritual authority, victory over the enemy, reigning in life and a successful prayer life. Jesus was demonstrating his right standing with the Father when he said, "Father, I thank you that you hear me always," in John 11:41. People struggling with whether or not God hears their prayers suffer from righteousness ignorance. Why? Because the Word says that He not only hears them, but His ears are waiting in anticipation for them to say something. You can tell the difference between the person who understands who they are before God and those who do not just by the way they pray! The former know, "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much!" They know, "The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayers of the righteous" (Proverbs 15:29). Righteousness is the key to an effective intercessory prayer life. When you read about Abraham, watch the difference in him before and after he realizes he's in right standing with God.
When you really grasp the reality of who the Father is and who you are in relation to Him, you will never come away from His presence empty-handed. No one realizing his right standing would dare strut into the holy presence of Love Himself and demand with arrogance. Yet, the righteous discern the unwavering character and boundless compassion of the One Whom they approach. They draw near on the basis of right standing and the Word with surety - knowing they have the petitions they need and He hears them. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus teaches us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Afterwards, all these things we need will be added to us. Righteousness is not a thing like money, health, victory, freedom or deliverance. Right standing denotes a position. If we seek our position (rights and privileges) in the kingdom of God and act upon it, that will cause all the things that we need for an abundant life to be added to us. If things are not being added to us, the first place we should check is our pursuit of the kingdom of God and our position in that realm.
No wonder the Apostle Paul revealed in his writings that believers are seated in heavenly places in Christ. What a position! No devil, demon, evil spirit or even Satan himself dare stop the man or woman who knows his or her heavenly birthright and enforces it. Hell may bellow it's threats, but they fall deaf on the ear of those who know their God and who they are in relation to Him. They fear no earthly sentence, social crisis, economic confusion or political agendas. The book of Daniel states that they who know their God will be strong and do great exploits!
Learn the importance of saying out loud "I am the righteousness of God in Him." By uttering that powerful statement, we reinforce the image of righteousness in our minds. In a sense we are renewing our thinking to side with what Jesus purchased rather than a worm-in-the-dust religiosity. Religion exposes our identification with the failures and weaknesses of Adam rather than our union as sons and daughters of the Most High.
I remember more than twenty years ago when I was first introduced to this subject. The churches I grew up in baptized us in a heavy dose of unworthy conditioning. It should not be difficult to imagine when I first heard that, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ" that I rejected the notion – even though sat there reading it in the Bible with my own eyes. I could not imagine it. Even after seeing it throughout the entirety of the Scripture, my mind had difficulty grasping the idea.
So, I took a sheet of paper and typed all the things the Bible said I was in Christ Jesus. Then, I laminated it and taped it on the inside of the shower stall. Each morning as I showered I would start down the list saying what the Word said about me. You can guess what was at the top of that list – "I AM THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST". When I first started saying those things out loud, I felt uncomfortable. They didn't seem to ring true because of all the negative things I believed about myself. But after doing that every day for six straight months, I began to SEE myself the way the Bible says I truly am. The image of righteousness began to break through all the barriers of negative self-images. I replaced my SELF-image with the image of righteousness.
Psalms 107:2 says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!" When the Word of God permeates your consciousness with that image, you can stand before your greatest enemies and declare that you are redeemed from the hand of the enemy. We are redeemed from sin! We are redeemed from sickness! We are redeemed from poverty! We are redeemed from fear and worry! Now, boldly announce that you are redeemed from these things because you are NOW the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ!