Saturday, January 18, 2014
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
Dealing with the flesh: taking up the cross
Before the possession of our inheritance in Christ which is both spiritual and natural what must transpire is a shift in the believers stance. Joshua circumcised the people before they could possess their blessings in the old testament. Maturity is being able to follow the directives and leadings of the Holy Spirit whilst at the same time denying and putting to death the flesh life through a daily decision to take up the cross.
Luke 9: (NASB)
23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 24 For whoever wishes to save his [n]life will lose it, but whoever loses his[o]life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
Jesus clearly says its all about Me or yourself. Its an either/or issue, never both. If you want to follow Me in your life it will be at the cost of the death of your own self will, your own fleshly desires and power of sin in you. If you want to keep the power of sin, you will not have Him power your life. It comes down to the daily choice of Jesus and His resurrection life and right-living through the animating power of the Holy Spirit or do what you want when you want and what you feel like when you feel like it. We cannot serve 2 masters not money and God and neither can we serve self and God.
The self life is powerful, so powerful that it can only be disabled and crippled by God. But the finished work had already dealt with it. When Jesus died, our self life had died with Him.
Galatians 2:20 'I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, the life I live in the flesh, I live through the faith of the Son of God who loves Me and gave Himself for me.'
Now we obtain the victory of killing the flesh through faith in Jesus cross. There is no other way. There is no using our fleshly effort to kill sin and the flesh because using the flesh against the flesh will only empower the flesh further. We are called believers because everything in the spiritual world works by faith - the believing of the heart. When the bible talks about faith it is mainly talking about Faith in what Jesus has done - the finished work of the cross and who He is, His never changing nature and person.
All that is left is for the believer to believe.
"Jesus you died for me, you died also as me. Taking all my sins you have died, becoming darkened in the power of my sins you have died. You died so that my self life can die. I choose to believe in you, to die to my own will and self-desire and my own flesh so that you may be my all in all.
I receive Your death on my behalf and in my own flesh. I consider it dead because I have died in You. (Romans 6) Yes I have already died in You and I believe in You everyday that I am dead but You are alive in Me. You are the life of my spirit, soul and body.
That I may truly know you in my soul, in my heart, in my experience of following you. You are my resurrection and my life within me, You are my all in all. I believe that I have died with you and will take up my cross to put to death my flesh daily because You have already done it and I will take it by faith and receive this gift, enjoying this work You have done by believing in You every day. Amen"
Luke 9: (NASB)
23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 24 For whoever wishes to save his [n]life will lose it, but whoever loses his[o]life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
Jesus clearly says its all about Me or yourself. Its an either/or issue, never both. If you want to follow Me in your life it will be at the cost of the death of your own self will, your own fleshly desires and power of sin in you. If you want to keep the power of sin, you will not have Him power your life. It comes down to the daily choice of Jesus and His resurrection life and right-living through the animating power of the Holy Spirit or do what you want when you want and what you feel like when you feel like it. We cannot serve 2 masters not money and God and neither can we serve self and God.
The self life is powerful, so powerful that it can only be disabled and crippled by God. But the finished work had already dealt with it. When Jesus died, our self life had died with Him.
Galatians 2:20 'I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, the life I live in the flesh, I live through the faith of the Son of God who loves Me and gave Himself for me.'
Now we obtain the victory of killing the flesh through faith in Jesus cross. There is no other way. There is no using our fleshly effort to kill sin and the flesh because using the flesh against the flesh will only empower the flesh further. We are called believers because everything in the spiritual world works by faith - the believing of the heart. When the bible talks about faith it is mainly talking about Faith in what Jesus has done - the finished work of the cross and who He is, His never changing nature and person.
All that is left is for the believer to believe.
"Jesus you died for me, you died also as me. Taking all my sins you have died, becoming darkened in the power of my sins you have died. You died so that my self life can die. I choose to believe in you, to die to my own will and self-desire and my own flesh so that you may be my all in all.
I receive Your death on my behalf and in my own flesh. I consider it dead because I have died in You. (Romans 6) Yes I have already died in You and I believe in You everyday that I am dead but You are alive in Me. You are the life of my spirit, soul and body.
That I may truly know you in my soul, in my heart, in my experience of following you. You are my resurrection and my life within me, You are my all in all. I believe that I have died with you and will take up my cross to put to death my flesh daily because You have already done it and I will take it by faith and receive this gift, enjoying this work You have done by believing in You every day. Amen"
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