United with Christ - A Healthy Spirit-filled Life

 

As Born Again Believers, we are filled throughout our entire body, soul and spirit with all of God’s fullness. We possess the richest measure of His divine presence within us and we are wholly filled and flooded to overflowing with God Himself (Ephesians 3:16-19, Amplified Bible).

We are united with Christ in the very spiritual fiber of our being (Hebrews 4:12). He provides us with everything we need to live a healthy, Spirit-filled life.

Then, His Spirit infiltrates the joints of our soul – our thoughts, choices and emotions - to operate on our carnality while He plants His fruit within us (Hebrews 4:12).

Paul counted all of his worldly possessions and gain as lost when compared to the joy of his salvation and the riches he received from intimately knowing Christ (Philippians 3:7-11).

God gives this same resurrection life to lost sinners who humble themselves and surrender their life to Him (John 19:10-11). We are liberated from living in this earthly realm, even though we physically continue to dwell here (Galatians 2:20).

In this same way, we detach from our connection to this world, even the good parts of life, which hinder our walk with God, such as extended family, houses and lands – in order to obtain the better blessings provided for us by Christ in us (Luke 14:23-33; Philippians 3:10).

We realize that even the worst of adversity in our life ultimately comes from God to perfect our soul and to provide for us everything that we need to live Godly in Christ Jesus (Hebrews 11:32-34; Job 1:8, 2:3).

Prayer:

Father God, we knock on doors and invite our neighbors to church. We pray for them and for everyone You bring to our mind. We listen to Your Spirit and obey His promptings throughout our day. We shed Your light within us for all the world around us to see, so they may live with us in eternity as the redeemed of the Lord (Psalm 107:2).

You bore our sins in Your body on the cross; so that we too can die to sin and live righteously and victoriously, just as You did (1 Peter 2:24). You take priority in our heart over all other aspects of life (1 Corinthians 9:22). We give You all the praise and glory and honor due Your name (Psalm 96:8).

Thought for the Day:

God elected us as His holy and saintly priests, because we are His special possession created to declare His praises to a lost and dying world around us. - 1 Peter 2:9

The Importance of Christ in Us

 

Jesus came from God (John 1:14; Philippians 2:7-11); Jesus was God (Matthew 1:23; John 17:21) and God performed His will on the earth by abiding in a human body as Jesus (John 14:10; Acts 2:22).

God gives us a free will that allows us to choose or to reject His salvation. We can either accept His freedom from eternal destruction or reap the consequences of our choices.

In unbelief, we condemn our self (John 3:18). Every sin we commit stems from the root of unbelief. Once we believe in Christ, God works in us through His Spirit (Luke 4:14-15).

Every Born Again Believer is united with our triune God (John 17:21). The Trinity takes up inclusive residence within us (John 14:23; 1 John 4:15-16).

Our divine union is as intimate as the union between a husband and wife (Ephesians 5:28-30). We are buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in His new life.

Our old carnal self is crucified with Him and our body is no longer ruled by sin (Romans 2: 20, 6:12). Christ works His “ministry of reconciliation” in us and through us to the world around us (2 Corinthians 5:18).

Jesus gave us the ultimate example of surrender when He submitted to the suffering of Calvary in order to provide us with salvation.

We are reborn of the Spirit into a spiritual union with Christ (Romans 8:9, 16). Now, Jesus abides within us and wants to work through each of us. We are the visible presence of Christ in our world (1 John 4:17). 

Prayer:

Father God, when Christ moves in, we serve Him by the strength which You supply us (Philippians 2:12-13). This brings You glory and honor (1 Peter 4:10-11). It is no longer us, but You living within us by Your Spirit. You give us the desire and the power to work out our own salvation (Philippians 2:12-13).

We give You all the glory, honor and praise for opening the eyes of our understanding and bringing us to a saving knowledge of Your plan for our life (Ephesians 2:10). We walk in Your Spirit and fulfill the deeds, which You designed for us before we were even born.

Thought for the Day:

We are in Christ, but Christ is also in us.

- Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1 27; Romans 8:10; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Ephesians 3:16-17

United with Christ

God originally created mankind in the image of the Trinity (Genesis 1:6). Adam and Eve lived in an existence of body, soul and spirit in close fellowship with the Father (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

They enjoyed the same immortality, which Christ exhibited after His resurrection. Yet, when they believed Satan's lies, they chose to ignore their spirit and to give in to the temptation of their human nature.

As a result, their spirit died, and we all reap the consequences of their choice. Knowing this before He created the world, God planned to become man as Emmanuel (Genesis 1:1; Matthew 1:23).

He paid the ransom for the sin debt of anyone who chooses to submit to His will rather than to our human desires or the devil's temptations (Romans 4:25, 5:6; John 3:16-18).

The reason that God's Spirit regenerates our spirit and sanctifies our soul is so that we will live in the divine life of Christ in us, rather than through our human life with its earthly thoughts and desires (2 Peter 1:4; John 1:1, 12-14).

This is possible once our spirit is Born Again. It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us (Romans 12:2, 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Colossians 3:3-4). We live, move and have our existence in Christ alone (Acts 17:28).

We are united with Christ in our spirit, in the same way that Jesus' humanity was united with His Godly nature, while He lived on this earth.

The life, which we live in this body, is lived through the faith of God's holy Son (Galatians 2:20). We continue the work of Christ on this earth, and we do greater works as we function as His Body (John 3:3-6, 14:12).

We think, feel, speak and act in the will of God as we follow the leading of His Spirit through every decision we make, every word we speak and every action we take.

This affects our words and behavior in our vocation, marriage, extended family, neighborhood and church Body. We live as a city on a hill, and we never hide the light of Christ within us (Matthew 5:14-16).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for sending Christ to redeem us from sin and its destruction. Thank You also for helping us to renew our mind through the washing of the water of Your Word (Ephesians 5:26). Since Christ set us free from sin, then help us to stay free from its demoralizing clutches (Galatians 5:1).

Teach us how to walk in the divine nature of Christ in us. Help us to live and move and have our being only in Him, so that we can walk in Your will, exhibit Your character and do the works of Christ all the days of our life.

Thought for the Day:

Since Christ abides in us by His Spirit, then even though our body will die because of the sin, which cursed this world, God's Spirit gives us His life in our spirit, soul and body, because of His holiness. - Romans 8:10 

Many thanks to Matt Milligan for the use of his photo.