The spirit of man is dead at
birth, buried under layers of sin since the time of Adam and Eve (Ephesians
2:1-5). We all have a living soul – our
mind, will and emotions - which often fails under the weight of life, because
circumstances beat us down relentlessly. Our dead spirit and our unhealthy soul
affect our body as well. Without Christ in our life, we know something is
missing. We search relentlessly to find it. What we lack is the vital power of
God.
Without the Spirit of God
rebirthing and dwelling in our spirit, we are crippled in life. No one is
intrinsically good except God (Mark 10:18).
However, when Christ moves into our life, we daily die to our carnal flesh (Galatians
2:20; John 12:24; Luke 9:23). We start
to make choices, which last for eternity; rather than desiring options, which
are carnal, temporal and momentary. Jesus is our only life and we have no
meaningful existence outside of Him (2 Corinthians 13:5). This does not mean that we sit in a meditative state
all day, every day.
Jesus and the apostles
interacted with people. They were anointed with the Holy Spirit and with God’s power. They went
everywhere the Spirit led them, and they blessed many with wisdom, healing and
deliverance (Acts 10:38). Salvation
is the beginning of our walk in Christ, but the next step is to develop
awareness in our conscious thoughts of the reality of Christ living within us.
Once we come to Christ we are totally complete in Him (Colossians
2:9-10). We live and move and have our
existence in Jesus each moment of our day (Act 17:28). Christ actually does the work of God through us.
Our true identity as Authentic Christians comes from
Christ living in us. Christ expresses God’s character through us, which is the
fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness,
meekness, self-control and faith (Galatians 5:22-23). We are all united with
Christ in His Body. He uses us as individual members,
each with unique gifts and talents, in a
ministry to a corporate, church Body. He uses us to
fulfill His purpose in the earth (Romans 12:15; Ephesians 1:22,23; Colossians 1:18; 1
Corinthians 12:27).
Our life is God’s love letter to the world that He
cares about them (2 Corinthians 3:3). God equips us to walk in His will through Christ in
us (Hebrews 13:20). With Christ living within us, we experience rest for our
soul (Matthew 11:29). We stop striving to perform for God, because Christ works through us (Psalm
46:10; Matthew 6:28-33). This eternal rest is only available if we take our focus in
life off the temporal aspects of our existence and place it squarely on eternal
matters instead (2 Corinthians 4:18).
Prayer:
Father God, You gave us Your eternal life, which no
one can take from us (John 10:28). We are joined to You, and we are beneficiaries of
Your divine nature (1 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Peter 1:4). We have constant fellowship
with You, the Son and the Spirit (1 John 1:3, 9; Phil 2:1). You placed us in Christ
Jesus and we are seated in heavenly places in Him (1
Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 2:6). You provide every spiritual blessing for us in Christ (Ephesians
1:3). We want
to give you all the honor and glory for everything we think, say and do each
moment of the day.
Thought for the Day:
The integrity of our testimony may be the
difference in someone believing in or rejecting Jesus as their Savior.
