Life is the gift of God. We know life as we experience its presence within
us. It is experienced as it is expressed through the medium of one's own
body and soul. And we have also received eternal life. "And this
is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in
his Son. He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God
has not life." 1John 5:11-12
The power of life within us has been
redeemed that we might be partakers of His divine nature. Because it is
the will of the Father, we can expect to see eternal life transforming us
heart, mind, body and strength. The Lord is appearing and His reward is
with Him.
We each need salvation through Jesus Christ. None can save themselves. Because
of this, we often fail to appreciate how glorious is the conception of our
life in the mind of God. These two views must be properly balanced. The
cross of Jesus Christ and our identity with Him in His death causes our
sins to forgiven and frees us from the bondage of living in Adam. We know
and experience that there has been a birth, a divine birth - the birth of
Jesus Christ within us. The birth of Jesus Christ within us is the birth
of the new man. We are chosen to experience this new man. We can live out
from the new man. The new man is becoming our life. The new man is born
of the Spirit and the Word.
"As many as received Him, to them gave
He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
That were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God." John 1:12-13
"If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we
shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." Romans 6:5
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cross completely sets aside one kind of man, our first birth in Adam. "Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might
be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." Romans 6:6
The Cross does not annihilate our individuality; the cross does not destroy
our personal entity and being. We are given the power and ability to express
the Lord that dwells within us, individually and collectively, as His body.
We are in a relationship with God. God has chosen to be known to us as having
personality. His character and existence will be imparted to us through
relationship. Neither is our individuality lost in the Body of Christ. Paul
places emphasis on the uniqueness of each individual and yet shows the body
functioning together.
1 Corinthians 12:17-20: "If the whole body were an eye, where were
the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now
has God set the members every one of them in the body, as it has pleased
Him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they
many members, yet but one body."
Self-centered individualism is overcome
but redeemed individuality is of the utmost importance. Each of us finds
our identity in Jesus Christ.
We believe that we know, by the Spirit, what God is looking for; therefore
we have set our eyes upon the goal of His high calling in Christ Jesus.
He is preparing sons and daughters in His image and likeness. He is preparing
a people who will overcome "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word
of their testimony." Revelation 12:11
God is building a dwelling for Himself, a building made of living stones
"a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." 1Peter 2:5 It is a temple not
made with hands.
His desire is to have a people
in the earth in whom, and in the midst of whom, Christ is all, and in
all. We are putting on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge
after the image of Him that created Him." We are the Church, the
Body of Christ, "the fullness of Him that fills all in all."
Ephesians 1:23
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things
have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2 Corinthians
5:17
We are being set free as we continue to behold the Lord in the spirit
and understanding, and maintain our faith in the promises of God. We spent
years learning to articulate our needs, or what we thought our needs should
be, only to find that one day, the Word and the reality of eternal life
in Jesus Christ, became our primary need.
We came to understand that we were called to put on immortality and defeat
death. We were called to become sons of God in whom Christ would be revealed,
sufficient to defeat the last enemy and save and transform our bodies.
When what the Word reveals and promises became your need, it brought with
it the power to supersede all your other needs.
Reaching for the mark of His high calling empowers you to supersede the
spirit of the world and releases you from the bondages of your first-birth.
We are apprehending the vision that enables us to lay down our lives and
put or Christ.
It is something that we can do day by day as we walk out our salvation,
as we find ourselves in Christ and as we see the willingness that God
has to lead us by His Spirit. Oh, how Hs desires that we know and worship
Him in Spirit and in truth. If we can live in the Spirit we can walk in
the Spirit.
*For more information on this topic simply E-mail
Michael Brod at: michaelbrod@hotmail.com
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