Tag: Cross

Letting Go of the Things that Hinder Our Sanctification Process

Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Every born again believer stands in the same place. We are not what we ought to be, but we are not what we use to be either. This is the awesome convergence of salvation and sanctification. We are at once saved when we accept Jesus Christ as Our Savior. From that moment on, we enter into the process of letting go of who we used to be in order to become who we will be in Christ.

Jesus loves us just as we are, but He loves us so much that He cannot allow us to stay where we are. With His indwelling, we find ourselves in the constant battle of our flesh and our new spirit in Christ. We must let go of everything old – guilt, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, addiction, depression, despair, fear. These are the things of the flesh. These are the things that hinder us in our process of sanctification. These are the things that Jesus Christ freed us from when He died on the Cross.

The progress of sanctification, dying to sin more and more, and living to righteousness more and more, is the work of the renewal of our minds. This work will continue until the day we stand before Almighty God as He sees us in the image of His Son.

Let us discern the will of God in our lives and learn to live the good and acceptable and perfect lifestyles that Jesus Christ won for us on the Cross. Let us renew our minds and free ourselves from the chains of the flesh. Let us claim the victorious spirit-filled lives that Jesus has secured for us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son to die for our sins so that we may be free from the corruption of our flesh. We praise You for giving us the Holy Spirit to help us live as new men in Christ instead of men and women of the world. Help us, Lord, to let go of everything in the old man that is hindering our relationship with You. We pray that You strengthen us so that we may cling to Your grace as we continue in our journey of sanctification. We ask all these things in the name of Our Refiner and Our Purifier, Jesus Christ.

Hope and Joy in the Heaviest of Sorrows

2 Corinthians 1:5
For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

As the Body of Christ, we identify with Christ’s suffering on the Cross. We are crucified with Him. He endured the highest level of suffering for the remission of our sins. We suffer with Him as we confess our culpability for putting Him on the Cross. As result of His suffering and ours, we are given the abundant comfort of eternal life.

On a different level, Jesus Christ considers the sufferings of His corporate body to be His own personal suffering. He identifies Himself completely and directly with His church. So everything that we suffer in life, Jesus shares in. This is especially true of those things that we suffer for His name’s sake. But as we suffer with Christ, we receive the abounding comfort of His love.

Whether we are dealing with the physical or emotional suffering, Jesus provides the strength and comfort that we need to overcome the suffering that we endure. He supplies it abundantly so that we are never asked to suffer more than we can handle. Through His grace we are provided hope and joy under the heaviest of sorrows and suffering.

Let us humble ourselves at the Cross of our suffering King, Jesus Christ. Let us exalt His name for what He suffered on our behalf. Let us repent of all that we have done that put Him on the Cross. Let us accept our personal suffering, knowing that through Him we will be strengthened and even made cheerful so that we may be made useful and comforting to others.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, to comfort us in all of our suffering. We humbly ask forgiveness for putting Your Son on the Cross because of our inequity. We ask that we may suffer crucifixion with Jesus as we die to our old selves and take on our new lives in Christ. We pray that everything that we suffer in life be for the glory of Our Savior. May we always be cognizant of His personal and physical suffering. May both the suffering we go through and the abundant comfort that we receive result in eternal good for ourselves and for those around us. We ask all these things in the name of the Worthy Lamb, Jesus Christ.

Taking the Highway to Holiness

Isaiah 35:8
And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it.

Each day’s news and headlines confirm that from a spiritual perspective the earth is a den of iniquity, a vast barren desert. It is a rare case indeed when holiness can be found in the news. Looking forward, the content of the news is not likely to improve but to get worse and more hopeless. The social and political systems of mankind are offering nothing that will change things. As time moves forward, the barren desert is converting to a total wasteland through the ongoing deterioration of the morals of mankind.

There is a way of escape, however. There is a pathway that offers hope for anyone and everyone who takes it. The way out of the barren desert is through Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer. He is the way, the truth and the life. Because Jesus took His place on the Cross as part of the Father’s will for His life, we as the redeemed children of God can stand up and find victory in the most difficult of circumstances.

Although our flesh will fight us, by the Word and Spirit of Christ, we that are spiritually blinded by the world can be enlightened. We that are spiritually deaf to the calls of God can be made to hear them readily. We that are struggling in service can be made active and joyfully productive. We that find it difficult to speak of God or to God can have our lips opened to bring forth His praise. We that find it hard to love one another can have our hearts filled with the perfect, loving forgiveness of Our Father in heaven. Most importantly, we that stand alone against the world can find victory in all things of this earth, no matter how trying, if we all stand together in Jesus Christ.

Let us seek the way of holiness that is found in Jesus Christ. Let us learn to live in the light of Christ even though the world around us lives in darkness. Let us become beacons of His light.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing the way, the truth and the life that is in Jesus Christ. We thank You for loving us first, so that we may love You and abide in Your will for our lives. We pray that You enlighten us and strengthen us so that we may see and follow the way that You have set aside for us as individuals and as a worldwide community. May Your grace be upon us so that we may be living founts of Your love and holiness to be shared with the world around us. May the world be changed as we all stand together united with Our Savior. We ask all these things in the name of Our Refuge from the Storm, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Accepted Public Hatred, Ridicule, Scorn, Suffering and Death for All Mankind

Philippians 2:8
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

The fact that Jesus left His divine state to become a man illustrates an act of humility that surpasses anything that any human could imagine. Accepting the lowliness of man, it would have been reasonable by any human standard that He would a least appear as a king. Not so for this divine man, He took not a royal station but accepted a position in a lowly manger. His state within humankind never advanced to any level above the lowest elements of society. He worked His entire ministry in the streets and hillsides among the common people.

Aside from His transfiguration before Peter, James and John, His splendor was never to be seen by man until He ascended to His seat beside His Father in Heaven. In the meantime, He endured a life of poverty and suffering which ended in an exposition of public hatred, ridicule and scorn. Then, having no place for personal pride, He accepted death so that we may have life.

Let us lie at the foot of His Cross each day and learn from Our Savior King. Let us take note of His complete obedience to the Father under all circumstances. Let us allow our personal pride to dissolve in the face of knowing why He made these choices – to save us from our sinful and prideful nature. Let us be inspired by His faithfulness and His promises. Let us humble ourselves to the point of putting the old man in our lives to death so that our new man in Christ may live.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we humbly bow before Your throne, asking Your forgiveness for our sins. We thank You for providing the way for us to overcome our sinful nature. May we cling to the Cross of Our Savior. May we learn to set aside our pride and serve those around us in the manner that You call us. May we ignore the scorn of the world as we are obedient to Your calling on our lives. We ask all these things in the name of The Captain of Our Salvation, Jesus Christ.

The Promise of Love, Joy and Peace

Revelation 1:18
I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

When Jesus Christ proclaimed that He is the first and the last, He confirmed His role in our time based world. He brought our world into existence and He will usher it out when He brings in His eternal kingdom. When He proclaimed that He holds the keys to Death and Hades, He confirmed His proper deity and His covenant of grace and salvation for all.

When we have a relationship with Jesus Christ, who created the universe and still controls every minute detail of its existence, how could we lack the confidence that He will overcome any person or evil in the universe that comes to harm us. It just does not make sense to question His power and sovereign rule.

Fear not! He is the head of His own house by Whom and for Whom all things were created. He will keep His house in perfect order according to His will and perfect plans.

Let us rest in the hands of the One who promises us His love, His joy and His peace through His victory on the Cross. Let us trust in the One who closes the portals of hell and opens the gateways of heaven. Let us bless His name as we rejoice in His power over our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we fall at Your feet in utter awe of who You are. We proclaim Your Name above all other names. We praise You and we surrender to Your power in our lives. We exalt the name of Jesus. May He lay His hand upon us in love and not in wrath or anger. We pray that You will show us Your power in the struggles that we are currently experiencing. May we find joy in our circumstances knowing that You have already settled the matters for our good for all eternity. We ask all these things in the name Our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.

He Holds Open the Doors of Heaven

Luke 24:51
While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

In the old testament, each person needed a priest to represent him or her before the throne of God. Through their high priest and the accompanying sacrifices, each person’s sins were atoned for. Without the intercession of the high priest, the individual person had no hope for salvation nor for their prayers to be answered.

Jesus changed it all when He ascended into heaven after His death on the Cross. He was welcomed by His Father, by all the glorified saints and holy angels. He was seated at the Father’s right hand. He remains there forever as Our Mediator in restitution for all of our sins.

He rules eternally from His seat next to the Father so that our fears may be silenced, our sorrows may be sweetened and our hopes may be kept up. He holds open the doors of heaven so that we can go directly to the throne of God with our praise, our worship, our prayers and our solicitations. More importantly, He holds a place for us because we are His redeemed lambs.

Let us go to the throne of grace. Let us call on the promises of Our Risen King. Let us set our affections on the high things above. Let us expect Our Savior to complete His good work in us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that you allowed Your Son to ascend into heaven to sit at Your right side and stand in intercession for all of us that call Him Lord. We thank You that You allowed Your Son to return to earth after His resurrection to confirm to the world the victory over sin and death that we, who have received Him as Our Savior, partake in. We ask that we will receive the fullness of His blessings as Our High Priest. We pray that we may share those blessings with those people who You place around us. We ask all these things in the name of our Risen Savior and King, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ – Our Gateway to Heaven

John 14:9
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?” He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, “Show us the Father”?

Philip had seen Jesus with His eyes, but he had not fully discovered Him with his heart. We must be aware of the importance of truly seeking a relationship with Almighty God. He is our loving Father. He is eager for us to approach Him as Our Father in heaven. While He is pleased when we study His Word and we sit at the feet of His teachers to learn about Him, He desires for us to have so much more. He longs for us to seek intimacy with Him and He provides the way for us to do so through His salvation plan.

The greatest treasure of all time is ours. The treasure of knowing Almighty God will satisfy our hearts forever. It is ours for the taking. Magnificent gifts of grace and anointing are awaiting us. All we have to do is step beyond being satisfied with head knowledge about our treasure and into the world of a discovery of the heart.

Our Heavenly Father reserved a place in heaven for all who believe in His Son and surrender to Him to rule and reign in their lives, but that was not all that He did. Almighty God also opened up access to His throne when His Son died on the Cross. He gave us access to His Kingdom even while we are on earth.

Let us seek the Holy Spirit to inspire us to be driven by our hunger for a deep personal relationship with Almighty God through His beloved Son. Let us strive to go past head knowledge of the Father and His eternal promises. Let us enter into an intimate relationship with Him and His Son as we walk our paths of sanctification here on this earth.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son as the gateway to Your kingdom. Open our eyes, Lord, that we may not only seek our salvation through Your Son, but that we may also seek the fullness of His presence in our lives. We pray that the Holy Spirit take us beyond the knowledge of Your Son to the high places where we experience an intimate relationship with Him daily. Help us, Father, deepen our relationship with Your Son so that we may know You according to the fullness of heart that You have set aside for us. We ask all these things in the name of Your Living Testimony, Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Influences That Assist Us in Being Holy, Pure and Wise

Isaiah 11:2
And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

In this passage, Isaiah was prophesying of the nature of our coming Savior. The scripture foretold that Jesus would be given extraordinary endowments through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Because we are indwelled by Jesus Christ when we accept Him as Our Savior, we inherit these same wondrous endowments for ourselves. The inheritance that we receive is not temporary or occasional. It is a permanent and enduring influence on our lives.

With our inheritance, we receive three pairs of spiritual influences to assist us in being holy, pure and wise. Each pairing is made up of a spiritual gift and the resulting impact of that gift in our lives:
1) We are provided wisdom from which comes the understanding to perceive moral and intellectual truths.
2) We are provided counsel from which comes the might that gives us the direction and the power that we need to carry out the plans that emerge from our spiritual insight.
3) We are provided knowledge from which comes the fear of the Lord which establishes the foundation of our relationship with the one true God, Our Father in heaven.

Let us be mindful of all the gifts that Christ made available for us when He died on the Cross. Let us seek the fullness of the Spirit of the Lord to overwhelm us each day. Let us use our gifts to produce great fruit for the Kingdom of Almighty God and bring honor and glory to Our Savior.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the wondrous nature that You have given us in Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We pray that the fullness of the Holy Spirit will rest upon us. We seek Your wisdom so that we may have understanding in all matters. We seek your counsel that we may become mighty warriors for Your kingdom. We ask, Lord, that You inspire us to take the knowledge that we have of You and turn it into a reverent awe that changes how we live every moment of our lives. We ask all these things in the name of the One who gives power to the faint and might to those without strength, Jesus Christ.

Placing Our Futures in His Hands

Isaiah 52:12
For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

As the glorious Easter celebration approaches, our thoughts are likely to turn toward a new path ahead in our lives. Let us not rush out to make decisions. Let us move forward toward our new path, not in a disorderly fashion, but under the leading hand, instruction and protection of the Holy Spirit.

Let us move on to our new path knowing that God will be with us. Through His Son, His Holy Spirit has been sent to guide us. Under submission to Our Savior, we can let loose of the things of this earth and grasp on to the things of God’s kingdom. We can shake ourselves from the dust of our doubts and our fears. Our victory was settled on the Cross. May the presence of the Lord be constantly before us and behind us.

Let us live each day knowing that the Lord Jesus reigns in our lives. Let us live in the fullness of the good tidings that came in with His birth and move ahead confidently under the promises of His death and Resurrection. Let us place our futures firmly in His hand. Let us live today in freedom, in peace and in service to His calling on our lives. Let us move forward boldly into our manifest destiny in Christ under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your constant presence in our lives. We thank You that You go before us to prepare our path forward and that You stand behind us to protect us on our journey. We bless the name of Jesus whose victory on the Cross allows us to live our lives without fears or doubts. We pray that the Holy Spirt will guide us as we seek the new lives that You have set aside for us. May those around us in the world be drawn to Your Son as they see us living our lives under His reign. We ask all these things in the name of our ever present shield, Jesus Christ.

Redemption is the Work of the Lord

1 Corinthians 1:17
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Paul served the emerging church in a number of ways, but he understood that God had called him and equipped him specifically to preach the Good News through the power of the Cross. Paul teaches us that, as we serve our churches and communities, it is important that we rely on the Holy Spirit to help us to find out what God is specifically calling us to do in service to His Kingdom. We need to discover how we can share the power of the Cross in the world around us. As we discover our role in God’s kingdom on earth, we should be aware of several important aspects of our calling.

  • No role is too big, nor is any role too small, when we are doing what Our Creator called us to do.
  • When we find our calling, we will recognize it because we will have the same passion for our calling that Paul had for his calling.
  • The fruit that we bear in our calling will be the result of the supernatural work of God released through the Cross. The fruit will not be attributable to us.

Paul made it clear to his audience that the redemptive power of the Cross did not rely on anything that he did, nor would it rely on anything that they did or said. We learn from Paul that it is not our enticing words or the strength of our presentation that wins hearts. We are simply vessels of the divine truth of God’s mercy on all of us. We should never consider ourselves to be the reason that a soul came to Christ. The redemptive process is totally reliant on the supernatural work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

Let us serve from the foot of the Cross. Let us guard against taking any credit for the salvation of another. Let us rejoice in the power of the supernatural, redemptive work of the Cross. Let us give all the glory to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You equip us to do Your work. We praise You for allowing us to participate in the work of redemption made possible by the sacrifice of Your Son, Jesus. We pray, Lord, that You will open our eyes so that we can see the unique ways that You have endowed us to serve You. We pray that Your Holy Spirit will prepare our hearts so that we may serve You as humble vessels of Your divine, redemptive power. We pray all these things in the name of Our Lord of the Cross, Jesus Christ.