His Exact Replica

After Salvation, we often focus our attention outwardly. We see God on His throne in Heaven, but we see our self as struggling alone in life and in need of His divine help. Some people say we are nothing but puppets, forced to serve as our Divine Manipulator dictates. However, we are more like a glove. Christ exactly fills us and we are perfectly molded to His character and nature (2 Peter 1:4).

Our union with Christ involves our spirit, soul and body. He unites them in vision and purpose with Christ. Through this union, God expresses His heart through us in sympathy for the hardships of others, in patience in tribulation, and in devotion in Bible study, prayer and fellowship with other Saints of God. Consequently, God fulfills through us His purpose for us in the earth (Ephesians 2:10).

In this manner, the union between the Creator and the created, the divine and the human, the eternal and the temporal is complete (Colossians 2:10). The Spirit directs us, and we move as His exact replica on the earth. Jesus also walks beside us, as well as living within us. He completely surrounds us, finishing His work of sanctification in our soul. We live, move and exist in Him (Acts 17:28).

Christ redeemed us from sin by the cross, and He works out His intentions in us and through us (Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 2:9-10). Jesus is our all in all (Colossians 1:17). He justifies our spirit; sanctifies, inspires and directs our soul; and will eventually glorify our body. Jesus is the expression of God’s glory and the exact image of God’s being (Hebrews 1:3). He speaks the oracles of God through our voice (1 Peter 4:11).

Also, Jesus heals a sick body through the laying on of our hands (Mark 1:41; 6:5; 5:3; 7:32, 33; 8:23, 25; 16:18; James 5:15). He sees a need and meets it through the resources He provides for us (1 John 3:17). He will even raise the dead, cleanse the leper and cast out demons in and through us (Matthew 10:8). As we walk in union with Christ, by the direction of His Spirit, we walk as shining stars, shedding His light in the dark, lost world around us (Colossians 1:27; Philippians 2:15).

Prayer:

Father God, Your will flows from a combination of Your divine love and wisdom. Harmony in our relationship with You increases as we live in union with Christ. This guarantees that more accord abides between our will and Yours. We soon find that our purpose is to do nothing more in life than to allow Christ to work through us. Fill us with the spiritual gifts and fruit of Your Spirit, and help us to lay down our plans and expectations, so You can use us for Your purposes each moment of our day. 

Thought for the Day:

If we only focus on Christ on the cross, we may forget the fact that the risen Lord dwells within our spirit.

Amazing Love

 

When life heats up the fiery furnace for you, do not worry, because Jesus is in us, right there with us. When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we have nothing to fear, because He is right there in us. The world rewards human capacities such as intelligence, talent and earthly accomplishments; however, these have no bearing in the Kingdom of God. There is no facade or pretense that we can use to impress God to love us more than He already does (John 3:16-17).

Jesus’ love fulfills the Biblical law (Matthew 5:17-20). He approves of us just the way we are (John 15:12). In turn, He calls us to treat one another with this same love and acceptance. Our union with Christ draws us to walk in obedience to Him and His Word. His love through us is proof that His new life resides within us (John 13:34-35). This removes the excuse that the church is full of hypocrites. The world is drawn to the family of God, when they see His love in us.

Christ in us is the quintessence of His Divine love. He loves the undeserving and unappreciative with the same fervor that He loves those who choose to obey Him (John 3:16-18). The more we allow Christ’s love to flow through us, the more conviction these contrary people will feel; and the more they are drawn to accept Christ as their Savior. God gives us His Divine love for them; we simply allow it to flow through us.

God also gives us His heart of love for all fallen humanity. This love transcends the earthly realm and is full of the Spirit of God. Due to the humility we learn through squarely facing our imperfections, we can love others without judgment or expectations. We live as continuous examples of Christ’s sacrificial love to our family and to everyone we meet. His love in us is the common denominator that makes us all equal to one another.

Prayer:

Father God, remind us to live for You and to serve one another. As we follow Your guidance and direction, we will not enable others or codependently slip into the role as a caretaker beyond Your direction. Teach us to live in step with Your Spirit and to love as You direct us to. Allow nothing in my character or behavior to dim the light of Your Divine love through me. We count it as a privilege to be called by Your name and to express Your love to the world.

Thought for the Day:

Jesus taught us by His example to live as a servant to all.

Baby Steps

The sad state of affairs in this world is that most people focus their attention more on their own ability to solve issues and their own talent to obtain riches rather on following God’s Spirit throughout their day (Galatians 5:16, 25). They fill their soul so full of carnality and self-effort that there is no room for Christ. They prefer to find enjoyment in carnal pursuits rather than in Christ. They end up leading discontented lives in the degradation of sin, and they are doomed to reap the curse of their own decisions and actions both now and in eternity.

When we repent of our sins and are baptized in the name of Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit as a gift from God (Acts 2:38). We are sealed with the Spirit as a down payment of our inheritance with Christ (Ephesians 1:13). There are some Believers in Christ who never pay attention to God’s presence within them. They suppress the expression of Christ in their life. Possibly, they worship with Believers on Sunday, and maybe even on Wednesday night, but they ignore Christ the rest of the week.

Still other people strive to keep every word of the law in order to gain God’s favor. They forget that God’s love is a free gift (John 3:16; Romans 6:23). God gives Born Again Believers the ability to walk in union with Christ as He transforms our life one baby step at a time (John 14: 16,20,23). Since we are rooted deeply and grounded securely in Him, we personally experience the breadth, length, height and depth of God’s love for us (John 3:16; Ephesians 3:17-18, Amplified Bible).

Our intimate relationship with Christ starts when we, by faith, invite Him to make His permanent home in our spirit. His presence renovates our soul – our mind, will and emotions; the center of our inner man. Christ gives us fortitude of character. Then He fills us through our entire being with all of His fullness. We receive the richest measure of His divine presence within us, until our body, soul and spirit are entirely filled and flooded with the power of God. We come to know Christ in a practical way, through our daily experience in prayer, Bible study, service and devotion (Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified Bible).

We come to love God, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). We repent of our willful sin and ask the God of the universe to dwell within us. We find our true self-worth and identity through our relationship with Christ. We are strengthened and reinforced with His mighty power in our inner man by the Holy Spirit Himself. He dwells in our spirit, and permeates our body and soul as well (Ephesians 3:16, Amplified Bible). Aspects of life, which formerly crippled our soul or tempted us away from the straight and narrow road (Matthew 7:13-14), no longer have any affect on us, because we maintain our faith in His faithfulness.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, trials and temptations serve to strengthen our relationship with You. You allow them into our life in order to reveal to us our true nature and areas in our life, which displease You. All of our self-will, rebellion, unfaithfulness and unfruitfulness are slowly pruned away by Your Spirit’s gentle touch.  May we fully experience the complete dimension of Your divine love for us. It is so utterly supernatural that we often fail to recognize it. We think of Your love in humanistic terms and miss the little things You do for us each and every day.

Thought for the Day:

In our weakness, we depend upon God’s strength.