Learning the Abundant Life
Jesus Christ is Lord. I am sure if you are reading this, you may have heard this statement, but have you truly considered what such a statement means? To say that Jesus Christ is Lord by default says that I am not Lord! It truly means that I am His slave and He has all rights and access to my life. As Romans 6:10-11 shares with us, "For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Did you catch that word 'life?' The implications of such a truth have divine and eternal ramifications to who I am as a Christian... and you, too, for that matter.
Jesus Christ came to this world as John 1:14 proclaims - "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." The Good News about Jesus Christ is not only that He is Lord, but that He is Life! His Lordship gives us Life.
My Dad taught me from childhood the wonderful truth of John 10:10 - "The thief does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy. I am come that they may have life and have it more abundantly." Abundance means, 'until it is full and overflows.' This begs the question; of what, or rather, whom, do we overflow? Ephesians 5:18 declares, Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. That is our answer. We are to be filled with the Spirit. Therefore, the abundant life our Lord came to give, through His death, is one of Spirit-filled living. This section of the blog addresses the wonder of the Spirit-filled life and the reality that it can be ours in all the 'fullness' thereof.
Pray that the Lord will speak to your heart as you learn of the abundant, or Spirit-filled, life. God will certainly answer such a prayer. Naturally, this section is 'in process' and I hope you will be encouraged and, yea, even convicted of the wonder of it all as we delve deeper into "Christ in us, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:27)
Living the Abundant, or Spirit-filled, Life is all about Christ the Lord living His life through my life. By stating, "Jesus is Lord," by default I concur that I am not Lord; thus, I am under glorious submission to Him and His purposes. The following truth is the first step to this abundant Spirit-filled Life.
When you and I started following Christ, we became one with Him. This is not a command, but a reality and it is important to distinguish the two. The Bible states, "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them" (John 17:9-10). Our Lord prayed for us in John 17 and this prayer is not a command for us to 'do' anything, but rather, simply accept as true what He says as true. Therefore, my walking in abundant, Spirit-filled living is simply the life of Jesus at work in me.
The greatest work of Spirit-filled living was accomplished when Christ took over as Lord in my life and became glorified in me, as John 17:9-10 proclaims. The work is Him at work, not me.... and beloved, that is the essence of it all! If you and I ever think that we can contribute to the work of God through our efforts, we are in for a huge problem. We will find ourselves at conflict with the work of God rather than cooperating with the work of God. Our effort in the flesh can in no way assist the work of Christ in and through us by His Spirit.
I cannot 'make' myself more purer; I cannot 'make' myself more obedient; I cannot 'make' myself more acceptable that I already am! Let's ask this question: How can we improve the sacrifice that God gave of His own Son? We can't improve what God has accepted. We cannot complete anymore what Jesus called, "It is finished" (John 19:30).
You and I were given unblemished, non-improvable, perfect righteousness from the only Person that even matters from the scope of eternity and that is the merit of Jesus Christ the Lord by God the Father. This righteousness is the very life of Christ IN us. Let's ask that question again in a different manner: How can we live the life that has already been lived and given for us? "It is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). Christ gave us Himself at our conversion and because of His life in us, we simply present ourselves as a vessel for the Father to fill with His Spirit.
The above is the first simple step to the Spirit-filled Life at work in us! It really is pretty simple because this first step has already been made by the One who gave us Himself. What do we 'do' at this point of the Spirit-filled Life? Absolutely nothing, my friend, except realize we are already His. We will learn of the next step in another post, but until we rest in the reality that we are already His, we will miss the whole point of the Spirit-filled Life. The point of it all is to simply enjoy Jesus and everything about Him. So, keep that in mind as we continue to learn of the abundant, Spirit-filled Life!
Living The Abundant Life (Part One)
When you and I started following Christ, we became one with Him. This is not a command, but a reality and it is important to distinguish the two. The Bible states, "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them" (John 17:9-10). Our Lord prayed for us in John 17 and this prayer is not a command for us to 'do' anything, but rather, simply accept as true what He says as true. Therefore, my walking in abundant, Spirit-filled living is simply the life of Jesus at work in me.
The greatest work of Spirit-filled living was accomplished when Christ took over as Lord in my life and became glorified in me, as John 17:9-10 proclaims. The work is Him at work, not me.... and beloved, that is the essence of it all! If you and I ever think that we can contribute to the work of God through our efforts, we are in for a huge problem. We will find ourselves at conflict with the work of God rather than cooperating with the work of God. Our effort in the flesh can in no way assist the work of Christ in and through us by His Spirit.
I cannot 'make' myself more purer; I cannot 'make' myself more obedient; I cannot 'make' myself more acceptable that I already am! Let's ask this question: How can we improve the sacrifice that God gave of His own Son? We can't improve what God has accepted. We cannot complete anymore what Jesus called, "It is finished" (John 19:30).
You and I were given unblemished, non-improvable, perfect righteousness from the only Person that even matters from the scope of eternity and that is the merit of Jesus Christ the Lord by God the Father. This righteousness is the very life of Christ IN us. Let's ask that question again in a different manner: How can we live the life that has already been lived and given for us? "It is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). Christ gave us Himself at our conversion and because of His life in us, we simply present ourselves as a vessel for the Father to fill with His Spirit.
The above is the first simple step to the Spirit-filled Life at work in us! It really is pretty simple because this first step has already been made by the One who gave us Himself. What do we 'do' at this point of the Spirit-filled Life? Absolutely nothing, my friend, except realize we are already His. We will learn of the next step in another post, but until we rest in the reality that we are already His, we will miss the whole point of the Spirit-filled Life. The point of it all is to simply enjoy Jesus and everything about Him. So, keep that in mind as we continue to learn of the abundant, Spirit-filled Life!
Living The Abundant Life (Part Two)
2 Peter 1:4 eloquently proclaims that we are given exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you and I might be partakers of the divine nature. The promise of the Word of God in us is that we have just as much of a relationship with the Father as the Son! Wow!! I am as secure as Jesus... and so are you. With that being stated, I am a participant of His nature. Notice this: I am not to imitate Christ, but I participate with Him. Too often we attempt to add to what God said was complete at the cross. I cannot bring anything to God except myself. As one of my great encourages has stated, "God is impressed with no one but Jesus" - Rev. Phit Whitt. How true, my friend. You and I have the divine nature imparted to us at salvation. This new nature must have a catalyst to live through and that is you and me as vessels set apart for His glory, more about that in the next post.
As stated in the previous post, I am to simply realize who I am in Christ as the first step to Spirit-filled living. We often hear of 'getting into God's Word' and rightly so, but we must also focus on 'the Word getting into us,' but both go hand in hand. Allow 2 Peter 1:4 to seep into your spirit and rest in the reality that you, in Christ, have the divine nature living within. You and I are not working towards a relationship with God, but living from that relationship! It is imperative to rest in the assurance that within your very being resides the new life of Christ.
You are fixed, my friend, and you probably have not even realized it. Until you do, you will wrestle against God's work in you as opposed to cooperating with Him.
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