Abiding in Christ

 

Salvation comes in stages. If we happily camp around the salvation of our spirit, we miss the glory of the sanctification of our soul. One day we will also experience the glorification of our body when Christ appears for His Saints (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Once we realize that the divinity of Christ and all of the power of the complete triune Godhead live within every Born Again Believer, a new enthusiasm produces constant praise from our lips to God’s ears (2 Peter 1:3).

We no longer view our self as a grubby worm inching around in the world of selfishness and sin. Instead, we see our self as beautiful butterflies soaring in the Heavenly, spiritual realm of life.

God calls His elect and then reveals Himself to and in us. He has a purpose for each of our lives (Ephesians 1:11). He loves us with His abundant, unfading and everlasting love (Psalm 25:6; Jeremiah 31:3).

We are totally dependent upon Jesus for our direction, health and provision moment by moment throughout the day (Ephesians 1:9; Philippians 2:12-13). Through our connection to the Vine, the life of Christ flows through us by His Spirit and we produce much fruit for the Kingdom of God (John 15:8).

Through our union with Christ, we shed the shackles of our sin nature and submit to the dealings and leadings of God's Spirit in our life (1 Corinthians 1:30). As branches in the Vine of Christ, we experience God as our husbandman.

He prunes the flesh from us so more spiritual fruit may grow (John 15:1, 5). We walk out of the bondage to carnality and into the glorious freedom of the sons of God (Romans 8:21).

Jesus is our center and God is the focus of our life. We seek to do His will in our job, community, church, extended family and home. If we walk in the darkness of self and sin, we stumble and fail in all of our attempts (John 11:10).

As we walk in the light of Christ, we find fulfillment in living out His will for our life (1 John 1:7). God’s wisdom, grace, love and supernatural abilities reside within us in Jesus Christ and are always available to meet all of our needs and to walk in God's will for us (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Prayer:

Father God, as we abide in You throughout the day, Your wisdom, grace, love and peace manifest in our life and out into the world around us. As we abide in You, You provide us with a dedicated life full of the wisdom, strength and Godly conviction, which we need to further Your Kingdom in our world.

We look forward to the day when we can also walk in Your power, so You can make a true difference in others through our life. As we make every effort to walk in peace with You, You renew our soul and make us blameless and spotless at Your coming (2 Peter 3:14). Our perseverance in our walk with You, guarantees that we will not stop short of Your glorious riches, which You prepared for us before time began (Romans 9:23).

Thought for the Day:

Undistracted devotion to God allows us to tap into all of His power and majesty in order to live our life as Elijah, Moses and Enoch did; and we will steadily walk into complete maturity in Christ. - James 1:4

A Reflection of God's Glory

 

God is always waiting with open arms to embrace us at any moment in which we care to cast our self on Him. He inhabits eternity and uses all of His power and authority to meet the needs of our body, soul and spirit.

As we walk as a fragrant gift in surrender to God’s will, we savor the sweet love, which Christ gives to us (Ephesians 5:1-2). He is our strong tower and our everlasting Father. Even if we fall, we are never utterly cast down, because He sustains us in His hand (Psalm 37:24; Song of Solomon 8:3).

God made a new covenant with us; different than the one He made with those who lived during the Old Testament times. He created this new covenant in Christ; and it gives us all of the rights and privileges of His spirit-filled, adopted heirs.

God's Spirit transforms us through the experiences we have each day. He teaches us through our participation in life to trust God, because of His faithfulness to us. As the Holy Spirit directs us, we learn to lay our life down for God as Christ did.

We learn of Jesus' character and divine nature through His inspired Words in the Bible (2 Peter 1:4). We read about Saints of old who actually experienced face-to-face encounters with Him. We learn to trust Him with our life, because they did (Exodus 24:15-17).

He satiates us through all of our being with all of His fullness and we grow in our intimacy with Him on a daily basis (Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified Bible). Our love relationship deepens as we focus on Him and totally surrender every aspect of our life to Him.

Prayer:

Father God, Jesus was in Your very form and equal to You even while He existed in this earthly realm (Philippians 2:6). This same glory abides within each Believer due to Christ abiding in us (Colossians 1:15). In Christ there is no fading of Your glory as was Moses' experience after his time with You on the mountain (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Remind us that our words and behavior are also a reflection to the world of Your character. If we walk in the flesh, we tarnish Your name and cause people to speak evil of You. Lead us in paths of righteousness for Your name's sake (Psalm 23:3). Help us to reflect Your glory so they will see Your power and majesty and come to believe in You as we do.

Thought for the Day:

God fellowshipped with man in the Garden of Eden during the cool of the day, from the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies, and now through Jesus as He dwells in the spirit of every authentic Believer. - Genesis 3:8; Exodus 2:21-22, 33:11

God's Kingdom Within Us

God gives us His salvation, so that we might share in His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Before we came to Christ, our spirit was dead in our sins, but Jesus delivered us from eternal damnation in hell (Ephesians 2:5).

He provides pardon for our sins, comfort in our affliction, strength to overcome adversity, the promise of a glorious resurrection, and life everlasting with Christ and all of the Saints.

Jesus spoke the words of God so that we can obey them and believe that God sent Him (John 17:8). When we choose to love Christ and to keep His statutes, He comes to make His home in us (John 14:23).

In our union with Jesus, we live in His divine nature and His divine nature lives in and through us (2 Peter 1:4). Since Christ dwells in our spirit, we become one Spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).

Through His divine power, God gave us everything we need to live a godly life (2 Peter 1:3). Although we live physically in this earthly realm, the reality of our life is that we live in the Kingdom of God (Luke 17:21).

We no longer view our life from a temporal standpoint, but from an eternal perspective. We live as partakers of Christ’s holiness as He puts His mind within us (Hebrews 12:10; 1 Corinthians 2:16).

The Father is in Jesus, Jesus is in the Father and we are in Jesus; therefore we are also in union with the Father (John 14:20-23, 17:21-23). The best part about life is that God loves us and shows Himself to us (John 14:21).

Prayer:

Father God, our attitudes about life and eternity change once we come to Christ in salvation. You created our new self to exist with the purity and holiness of Christ (Ephesians 4:23-24). Each day we come a little closer to complete unity in the faith and in our knowledge of Jesus, which will also eventually bring us to the full stature of the maturity of Christ in us (Ephesians 4:13).

Because of Your promises, we look forward to Your new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells forever (2 Peter 3:13). We long for the day when there is no more sighing or suffering, where complete unity occurs between nature and mankind, and where Your Body is ready, willing and able to serve You.

Thought for the Day:

Just as Jesus was fully human with God’s divine nature fully abiding in and through Him, we are fully human with Christ’s divine nature fully abiding in and through us.