The Express Image

 

 

Our life can bring God glory or shame. God calls us as instruments for His righteousness (Romans 6:4-11). Jesus was the express image of the Father (Hebrews 1:3). Through Christ in us, because of our union with Him, we also become God’s express image in the earth (1 Corinthians 6:17). As branches grafted into the Vine of Christ, the life of the Vine flows through each one of us (John 15:1-17). The fruit of His Spirit provides us with God’s divine character (Galatians 5:22-23).

God is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, self-control and faith; and by the fruit of His Spirit we manifest these same character traits. We are His temple and His Body, fitly joined together to demonstrate His life in the earth (1 Corinthians 3:17; Ephesians 4:16). With the life of Christ in us, He enables us to walk in the Spirit and to please God in all that we say and do (Galatians 5:16, 25; 2 Corinthians 5:9).

We seek God and His Christ with all of our strength; we continually seek His presence night and day (Psalm 105:4). We love Him with all of our heart - our soul: our mind, will and emotions, and with our physical strength (Mark 12:30). As His life flows in and through our life, we grow in the knowledge and wisdom of God. His glorious might strengthens us for every good work, and we bear much fruit for His Kingdom (Colossians 1:10; John 15:5-8).

God teaches us His ways, and we walk in His paths. We settle into His presence and walk in His will by His name forever (Micah 4:2,5). In everything, we give thanks to our God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, whom He sent (1 Thessalonians 5:18). As we draw near to God, He draws near to us (James 4:8). We end up hungering and thirsting for nothing but His presence and righteousness in our life, and He fills us with Himself (Matthew 5:6).

Prayer:

Father God, we totally surrender to Your life within us. We seek after no other purpose than Yours for our life. You will not leave us, and we will not turn back from following after You. Where You show us to go, we will go. Where You lead us to stay, we will stay. We will serve Your people, for they are our people as well (Ruth 1:16). We desire only to do Your will; therefore, place Your desires in our heart (Psalm 37:4). We rest from our works (Hebrews 4:10). We only want to do Your works, which You prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

Thought for the Day:

We do not have to step aside to allow God to work, because He works in us and through us, using our unique identity in Him for His purposes.

Living Holy of Holies

The faulty thinking of most Born Again Believers is that we are separated from Christ by the ethereal boundary between Heaven and earth. We view God in Heaven with Christ sitting on the throne at His right hand. That leaves us all alone, struggling down here on Terra Firma to live a holy life. When we come to the understanding that we are dead, and that Christ is now alive within us (Colossians 3:3), we stop striving to perfect our self and we step aside and let God be God in our life.

Jesus substituted His life for ours on the cross. In the same way, He now lives our life for us and through us. Jesus fulfills our Father’s will in us as we follow the leading of His Spirit moment by moment throughout the day. Life no longer requires any effort from us. God only wants our obedience. We simply stand firm as we watch the Lord bring deliverance in us and through us (2 Chronicles 20:17). Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 9:3). The Holy Spirit lives through us in the perfection of Christ and according to the will of our Father (Colossian 2:9).

Jesus challenges us to hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matthew 5:6). Christ is our righteousness, and our deliverance, redemption, sanctification and so much more (1 Corinthians 1:31). There is nothing left for us to strive for or to attain to. Therefore, there is no way we can boast about our accomplishments in the Lord. We boast in Him instead (1 Corinthians 1:31). Once we get the focus off our self, and place it on Christ where it belongs, then He can use us to fulfill His purpose in the earth.

 
If our flesh is tempted to sin, we simply remember that it is dead and hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). When we view any temptation through the eyes of the Spirit living within us, the sin loses its appeal for us. We realize that we would much rather live righteously through Christ than unrighteously through our old, dead flesh. In the same way, if we attempt a ministry for the glory of God, and the Spirit did not lead us to serve in that area, we will never find His anointing in it.

When Jesus lived in the flesh, He suffered trials in every area of life, and had just as many temptations as we do. Yet, in each instance, He drew from the strength of His divinity; and in the end, He conquered death and Hell for all of us (Revelations 1:18). Every Born Again Believer lives in divine union with this same Christ. Even though we still live in a body of flesh, we now live by the faith of the Son of God who cares for us and sacrificed Himself for us (Galatians 2:20). We draw from the strength of His divinity within us for healing, wisdom, strength and direction for a victorious life.

Prayer:
Father God, Jesus prayed that He is in us, and You are in Him. He wanted us to experience this same unity with one another so the world would know You sent Him and that You love us as much as You love Him (John 17:23). All of Your fullness dwells in Christ and He is the head of all powers and principalities. In Him, we are made complete (Colossians 2:9-10). Therefore, help us to let Your light within us shine so brightly, that people will see Christ in us and glorify You, who are our living hope (Colossians 1:27; 1 Peter 1:3).

Thought for the Day:
We search in vain for Christ outside of our self, only to discover that He lives in all of His fullness within every Born Again Believer.






Thank you, Tracy Hassall, for the use of your glorious photo.

The Holy Spirit in the Believer

We have love from the Father, grace from Jesus and communion with the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14). The Spirit seals, justifies and sanctifies us in the name of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:11, 2 Corinthians 1:22). He also sheds the joy and love of God in our hearts (Romans 5:3-5). He changes us into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). Our body is the temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19). The Holy Spirit fills us with righteousness, peace and joy, so that we abound in hope through His power (Romans 14:17, 15:13).

Our talents from God are not performed by human effort, but in demonstration of the Spirit and the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:4, 12:4-11). We speak, not according to human reasoning, but according to God’s wisdom, which the Holy Spirit teaches us (1 Corinthians 2:10-14). By God’s Spirit we proclaim that Jesus is Lord. We operate in His gifts and minister in His name (1 Corinthians 12:3; 2 Corinthians 3:6; 6:4-6). If we do not have the Spirit, we do not belong to God (Romans 8:9).

Our unconverted spirit is dead in sin and ungodliness. If we live in the flesh, we will die in the flesh. However, if we take up our cross and die to the flesh each day, we are free from the spirit of bondage to sin and we receive the Spirit of adoption as children of God (Romans 8:10-16, 23). The Holy Spirit within us searches our heart, helps our human frailties and makes intercession for us according to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27).

By sin and obstinacy, we can resist the Holy Spirit and stop His work in our lives and in the world around us (Acts 7:51). As we submit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, He leads us to serve in the areas of our spiritual gifts. In this way, we obey the will of God and further His Kingdom in the earth (Acts 20:28). As we walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh, we are free from the law of sin and death. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us (Romans 8:1-4).

Abraham became the father of believing Gentiles through Christ, so that we can receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Galatians 3:14, 4:6). The carnal flesh within us wars against the Spirit, but the Spirit within us is stronger (1 Thessalonians 1:5-6). We do not perfect our self through works of the flesh and sheer will power, because the Spirit, who began a good work of perfection in us, will completely sanctify us (Galatians 3:1-3). We, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of this righteousness by faith (Galatians 5:5).

If we cater to the flesh, we reap the corruption of the flesh, but if we focus on the things of the Spirit, then we reap everlasting life (Galatians 6:8). Therefore, if we walk in the Spirit, we do not fulfill the lusts of our flesh (Galatians 5:16-18). As we crucify the flesh with its desires and live by the Spirit, He strengthens our inner man (Ephesians 3:16). The Spirit fills us with His fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-25).

We are not to grieve or quench the Spirit, who seals us until the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). We use the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray in the Spirit with perseverance. We also pray in the spirit to intercede for all the Saints, especially for the persecuted church (Ephesians 6:17-18; Philippians 1:19). We are to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us, so that we do not live in carnal excess, such as being drunk with wine (Ephesians 5:18).

The Holy Spirit warns us that in the last days, people will depart from the faith, giving more credence to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons instead of to God’s truth (1 Timothy 4:1). However, God does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). The Bible is our guide for our faith and practice. We live, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but only by His mercy. God washes, regenerates and renews our spirit by the Holy Spirit, which He abundantly sheds on all of us through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:5-6).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, Your blood gives us eternal salvation through the Spirit of God, because You offered Yourself up to death on the cross to purge our conscience of dead works so that we can serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 1:2). Those who trample the concept of Your blood and consider it worthy of scorn, even though the Holy Spirit clearly proclaims that salvation comes only through You, gain for themselves a harsh punishment (Hebrews 10:29). Help us to share the good news of Your Gospel with everyone who will give us the opportunity, so we can help to spare them from eternal damnation.

Thought for the Day:

We can build up our faith by praying in the Spirit. - Jude 1:19-20
(More about praying in the Spirit tomorrow.)