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The Word...Epistle 1.5...Die in order to Live There are more negative things we can say about what we are today that space would not permit. These are given not to discourage or to criticize us, but to encourage us to rise up to a new level of faith and love for our Blessed Lord. And like electricity, it’s the negative and the positive that produces power. Take also the positive things we have said — the Word — and allow your life to produce that power! Jesus said, “...Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12:24). That’s the price that Jesus paid, and that’s the price we have to pay. Total death to self. It’s not that easy... Haggai 2:19 says, “IsTHE SEED yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth...?” Are we still in the barn of this world, the flesh, and of self? Let Jesus take you and sow you into the ground. Die...die...die... Many are not yet ready to die. We keep praying the Lord to sustain us. Somebody said, “Our prayers were not answered because we were praying the wrong prayer. We were asking to be strengthened, helped out and guided. This is like asking for the seed to be strengthened to bear fruit without being planted. God doesn’t want to strengthen us. He wants us dead. Dead does not mean strong, dead means perfectly weak. Dead, so that he can perform the miracle of new life. Not the old life repaired and fixed up a little, but a whole new life in Christ with the old life-style dead, destroyed. Why dead? Think for a moment about a dead person, that is, a corpse. The corpse doesn’t sin. It does nothing bad, no immoral acts, has no annoying habits, uses no bad words, thinks no evil thoughts, and has no selfish motives. It doesn’t get riled up or angry. It has no greed or lust. It has no problems with sex. Nobody can make it jealous, discourage it, frustrate it, or hurt its feelings. But what about our good qualities? Doesn’t God want to strengthen and refurbish those? No, because these have been thoroughly corrupted and perverted. The more they are strengthened, the more they will be tied up with wrong motives. If we think we are strong in certain areas, we will pursue those things without His help and increase our independence from Him. The way of death and resurrection, the way of new life in Christ Jesus, involves the death of the entire old nature. So the corpse we were talking about can’t do anything good either. It has no strong points, no rights, no special abilities, no bright ideas, no plans for the future, no emotions of its own, no compassion or love. It can’t even pray, much less testify for Jesus. It can’t defend itself or develop self-control. The corpse is now available for resurrection to new life. And this new life is to be the very life of Jesus Himself. “It is no longer I that live,” says Paul in Gal. 2:20, “but Christ who lives in me.” I am dead. I don’t live here anymore, Jesus does. He lives His perfect life in me. He doesn’t sin. He performs the perfect will of God through me. He overcomes temptation and bears much fruit.” God did not plan for us to live a crucified life, but a resurrected life. The same life that Jesus lived. Glory to God! Many are still struggling and praying God to mortify their carnal desires. The problem with us is that we often ask God to do something that we should be doing. We pray, “God, humble me.” God responds, “Son, humble yourself” (1 Pt. 5:6). We say, “Lord, cleanse me.” The Lord says, “Son, cleanse yourself” (2 Cor. 7:1). We beg, “Father, Mortify my flesh.” The Father says, “Mortify your flesh” (Col. 3:5). Then, we try to do something that God should be doing. We force people to be born again, to be healed, to be baptized or to be slain in the Holy Spirit. We even plan our steps. We try to make things happen in the Spirit, instead of letting the Spirit have His way. Oh, what foolish and carnal things we do! Let’s do what we should do, and God will do what He should do. Simply, get the living Word in continually. Get the rhema Word in continually. Satiate your spirit and starve the flesh continually. Allow the Spirit and the Word to dwell and abide in you on a daily basis. Let the Word live His life in you every moment (Gal. 2:20) through your unquestioning obedience. As you do, it is the Word that will bring that flesh to its Gethsemane . It is the Word that will make that flesh sweat with blood and cry in tears. It is the Word that will expose that flesh through spits, jabs and ridicule. It is the Word that will crown that flesh with thorns. It is the Word that will beat that flesh to a pulp with 39 stripes. It is the Word that will lead that flesh to carry the cross down the via Dolorosa. It is the Word that will nail that flesh on the cross. It is the Word that will pierce the side of that flesh until it gushes forth with blood and water. It is the Word that will cause that flesh to breathe its last breath and die. It is the Word that will carry that flesh to its tomb and seal it. Finally, it is the same Word that will resurrect that flesh to its new life! It is the Word! Hallelujah! shagged on 4/25/2009 12:10:00 PM Comments: Post a Comment