For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. — Galatians 3:27

The day you received Jesus as Lord and Savior, you were given the ability to put on Christ.  Christ in you, the hope of glory, can be allowed to shine through you to a place where you are hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).  People will be able to see what (and who) you are wearing and will be interested in where you got it!  “Are those new shoes?  Where did you buy them?”  “You are always in peace and always joyful-–why are you that way?”  You can then tell them, “It’s because I have learned to put on Christ!  I received Him at the new birth and now I am wearing Him.”  You no longer should identify with your heritage–-Greek, Jewish, Italian, Irish–-and no longer identify with your sex-–male or female (Galatians 3:28)–-but you are now Christ’s, Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29)!  The real you has been transformed after God into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.  You have become one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17).  The more you identify with His nature in you, His power in you, His knowledge in you, His wisdom in you, Him in you, the more you will put on the Lord Jesus Christ.  Soon the storms will listen to you.  The waves will stop roaring and the winds will stop blowing.  Demons will respond to you as they responded to Christ, and sickness and disease will go.  You have now “put on Christ”!  You have put on the new man.  You are now obeying the Word.  The Word has called you righteous, holy, redeemed, healed, blessed, filled, and victorious.  You are choosing to be that way, to talk that way, to think that way.  You have put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is being seen in you.

...put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.  Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; — Colossians 3:8, 9

The Bible tells us to put off once and for all the old man we used to be.  Consider him dead and gone, crucified with Christ.  Then we are not only to put him off, but his deeds also.  Notice the list of his deeds:  anger, wrath, bad talk, lying–-all are deeds or actions of the old man, the dead man.  Anger is not part of you.  Lying is not part of you; filthy communication is not who you are.  These things are now foreign to you.  You are the new man, the righteous man, the holy man.  No longer identify or associate in your thought-life with the sins of the old sinner.  How do you do this?  By seeing!  See your old man dying on the cross.  See him dead and buried!  See yourself a new creation, a spiritual creation, free from sin, free from anger, free from sickness and disease and the curse.  See yourself made alive with Christ.  See yourself raised and seated in heavenly places.  No longer see yourself as you were; do not associate with the old life in thought or speech.  Cast down thoughts and replace them with your new identity in Christ.  What you “see” is what you’ll have!

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. — Colossians 3:1, 2

If you are risen with Christ, made alive with Christ, and seated with Christ, then you are told to set your mind and keep it set on things above.  Your thought-life has the ability to take you places.  It can take you and seat you in heavenly places, where you rule and reign in the earth, or it can take you to a place of being a victim and a person under the worries and cares of life.  It can think about your new identity of being righteous, holy, powerful, and free.  It can also keep you living as an old powerless sinner.  Since Paul says “If ye be risen with Christ” and you have been, then don’t think like the old man.  You must set your mind and keep it set on things above.  Think and meditate on what Christ has provided for you, think on His performance, and who He made you.  Never focus on your old low life, your performance, your sin, or your failings, because then you will resurrect them in your life.  You are dead (old man) and your life (old life) is hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).  “See” Christ living, Christ walking, Christ talking in and through you.  See yourself healing and casting out devils.  See yourself as a raised love creation in Christ.  Set your mind and keep it set on who God declares you to be, not on who your performance says you are.  You are risen with Him.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

— Romans 13:12

This verse states that the night is over and a new day has begun.  Your old life of darkness, sin, failure, and weakness is long gone.  It was defeated and then buried with Christ.  Now a new day is here, a new life has begun.  You now can put on the armor of light.  You can live like the Word declares you can; you can walk in the light as He is in the light.  Sin is a thing of the past.  You are to “cast off’ the works of darkness; they are not part of the new you.  You can cast them off, throw them away, put them far from you.  No longer identify with or remember the former life.  Forget those things that are behind and press toward the mark of the high call in God.  The high call is your Christ-likeness; your ability, by faith, to believe, receive, and identify with who you are today.  You are thinking on the promises, thinking about your new identity, seeing yourself alive to God, to righteousness, to health, to wealth, to power.  A new you is at hand!  The old life is far spent, it is worn out, outdated!  You are now a person of light and, through association with your new identity, you are letting your light shine so that men see your good works and glorify God in heaven (Matt. 5:16)!  Your new day is at hand!