God's Ultimate Plan

Through Adam, God formed humanity in His image and likeness, as His ultimate creation in the Garden of Eden. Sin cast us down from our lofty position; and instead, required that we toil in the earth for our sustenance. However, the divine Christ took the form of a human being to redeem mankind for eternity. Now, He works in our life until we willingly surrender our carnal flesh for mortification by His Spirit, until we realize that we are dead, and our life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).

When we consider Jesus’ prayer in the Garden, prior to Judas’ betrayal, we can assume that He dreaded the horrendous coming events, which God required of Him. He begged God multiple times to allow the cup to pass from Him. Whether He feared the torture and crucifixion, or the bounty of God’s wrath, the debt of our sin or His separation from our Father for that period of time, we do not know. However, it is clear that Jesus felt apprehensive and craved His disciples’ support and prayer at that time.

We all know the end of the story. Jesus triumphed over sin and death. This same powerful Christ lives within us, with all the dynamic authority of His resurrection. He delivers every authentic Born Again Believer from any situation, which life throws at us, even death (Roman 8:11-23). Once the dynamite power of Christ moves into our spirit, we connect to the victory of the perfect union with Christ in us. We are now heirs with Jesus of all the glory due to Him, not because we are worthy, but because of what He did for us through Calvary’s cross (Romans 6:5).

Our humanity is dead, because we are crucified with Christ; yet Christ lives in and through us (Galatians 2:20). We are conformed to the likeness of His death through baptism, and then raised to walk in the freshness of new life in Him. We excel in His Kingdom work through His divine life within us. As Christ consecrates our spirit, soul and body to His service, we abide in Him as our righteousness, our salvation, our sanctification, our serenity, our sanctuary and our sufficiency.

Although all of creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God for its redemption (Romans 8:19), we currently abide in Christ with all the power of the triune Godhead residing within us. Yet, we live as prisoners to our negative emotions, our fleshly lusts, the lure of the world and the wiles of Satan and his minions. The reality of Jesus as the Lord of our life needs to sink into our soul until we eat, sleep, breathe and see it more clearly than any truth we have ever learned. Then we will walk in this reality with all the power of the triune Godhead within us (Mark 16:17-18).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, You draw us into a closer union and fellowship with You through each passing day. We yield in unconditional surrender in order to partake of Your divine nature, unconditional salvation and victorious life. We desire nothing less then perfect conformity to Your nature and to be filled through all of our being with all the fullness of Your spiritual power (Ephesians 3:19). We rely on You to bring us into a deeper and more intimate abiding in Your presence within us, until we lay down our will and walk in Your will instead.

Thought for the Day:

When the storms of life shake our peace and our faith in our Rock, Jesus Christ, we can blame our self-efforts for this malady; however, we find abundant faith to meet any turmoil, when we trust only in our Savior and Lord. – Galatians 3:1-3