When God says He would conform us to the image of Christ, He means He would grow and develop the nature and fruits of Christ in us. For this to grow it means the vices (things of the devil) which are already in us have to go! Why? Because our heart is a spiritual farmland of God and it is on this land that the devil has planted his vices, which are weeds Weeds must be destroyed if the rightful crops are to grow and become fruitful The process of removing these vices and replacing them with fruits is what we call discipleship. Through it, we receive purging, cleansing and sanctification. That is what the Lord God does as we come to eat at His table. This is why believers who do not spend time at God's table have a lot of vices in their lives. They are therefore more of the devil's image than God's image and that is why they are not blessed as they ought to. When vices are removed from our lives we experience great deliverance. and then blessings begin to come.
Image of Christ is Our Highest Deliverance
This is the mystery of being Christ’s image. We have seen that Christ has an image, and the devil has an image. We are Christ‘s image if we have His nature and character. We are the devil's image if we have the devil's nature and character. The nature and character of Christ is what we call fruits. The nature and character of the devil is what we call vices.
Now See How it Works
We are either like Christ or like the devil. If a person is 40% like Christ, it means he is 60% like the devil! That is he is 40% Christ's image and 60% devil’s image. It means his life has 40% fruits and 60% vices! Generally this person is more like the devil (60%) than like Christ (40%)! isn't this frightening?
What does this mean in terms of deliverance and progress? It means that this person is 40% delivered and 60% in bondage! How? Because Christ rules only where His fruits exist and His fruits exist only in 40% of this person’s life! Hence. we are told, “by their fruits you shall know them". The fruits we bear, that is the character we manifest, shows who is ruling in us, Christ or the devil.
So what is deliverance then? Real deliverance is to have the devil’s vices removed from our hearts and the fruits of Christ in place. That is the greatest and surest deliverance. That is the final deliverance we should go for.
If this man goes to God’s table and allows Him work on his life. the situation would then change, and so he can now have something like 90% fruits and 10% vices. This is a great position indeed! It means this person is now 90% like Christ and only 10% like the devil. That is he is now 90% Christ’s image and only 10% image of the devil. This further means that Christ now rules in 90% of his life while the devil rules only in 10%. In terms of deliverance, this person is now 90% delivered and only 10% bound.
Where Christ rules, there is peace. joy and progress. Where Christ rules there is success and ‘ everything goes fine. It means that this man will beginner to enjoy success, peace. joy. progress. In reality this must be a greatly successful person, sadly most Christians actually operate below 50%. Yes, most Christians operate below 50% Christ likeness hence they operate below 50% of the joy, peace, progress, etc. that should have been theirs! Therefore, most people experience below 50% deliverance because Christ rules in less than 50% of their lives! Therefore the devil rules more in their lives than Christ Hence greater part of their lives is in bondage!
Ephesians 4:13-16 New King James Version (NKJV)
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
That is why most believers are going about seeking deliverance! But Ephesians 4: 13-16 says that we can actually operate at 100% Christ-likeness! That is, We can have Christ ruling 100% in our lives, in everything.