There's a way that seems right to a person but leads to death, and another that feels foreign, but if taken it will lead to life.
Until we see the depths of our own selfishness we will not fully understand the power of the crosses. I said crosses on purpose because there's the Cross of Christ where His blood was shed that forgave our sins so that we could come back to relationship with the Father. That work is not an incomplete work because Jesus said it is finished, but ironically we lack understanding of this new covenant.
Covenant. Do you know what covenant means?
These days a formal agreement becomes binding by "signing on the dotted line." In Bible times there were certain procedures to be followed in "cutting" a covenant. I'm not going to get into all of that but what I am going to say is that in a covenant both parties agree to do their part to achieve something.
I know works don't save us, but they do keep us in a faithful Covenant relationship with the Father. That might sound a bit confusing but it's an insurrection of the heart. It's more than a prescribed set of rules to follow. In all your getting I'd highly recommend getting some wisdom on this so that your heart can be settled in this matter.
So Iets go back to the Cross of Christ where He said it is finished. He is saying that His part is done; but what about our part?
We're commanded in the first few chapters of the Acts of the apostles to repent, believe, be water baptized, and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Those are all part of it, but there is a greater part still.
Repenting and believing are continual things we will have to do and staying full of the Holy Spirit is also something we have to continually do because we see commands to stay full of the Spirit.
Water baptism only happens once. Isn't that strange that water baptism is surrounded by all of these things you'll have to continually do, but part of that is because we lack understanding about water baptism.
Water baptism is the place you enter into this new covenant with God. Everything you thought was you dies in the water as you join Christ in His death and then upon re-emerging you are joined together in His life. Sadly though many are taught that they can pick back up a great many things but few are told there's only one thing they should pick up. They should pick up nothing but their own cross, deny themselves, and follow after Jesus.
Today I was reading about why people fight and James says it's because of our own selfishness.
He's speaking to believers that still have this dark and hidden selfishness that perverts their motives and controls their lives. I believe it's because they hadn't yet understood the power of the second cross, the one we are all supposed to carry as individuals.
Repenting, believing, and staying full of the Holy Ghost are all means to this end, that we would pick up our own cross, deny ourselves, and follow after Jesus. Jesus said that there was no greater love than this, to lay down your life for your friends.
Jesus did a great many things and I used to think that to be like Jesus meant that I talk like Jesus, walk like Jesus, heal the sick like Jesus, cast out demons like Jesus, pray like Jesus, and teach like Jesus. I guess there's some truth in all of that but the reality is if we pick up our cross and follow Him, if we truly want to become like Him, then we will live a life that is lived only to glorify the Father God.
That's how Jesus walked.
In our thinking, our finances, our hearts, our work, our marriages, our other relationships, and in our coming and goings in this world.
This morning it really just felt like a deep awakening happened as I realized how grateful I am that I used to be such a selfish, proud, lying, stealing drug addict and sinner. That might sound strange, but the reason why is because I now have a deeper understanding of how much the cross of Christ has truly accomplished in my life. Nothing is the same.
In picking up my cross as a response to what He accomplished in me I serve Him with everything I am. Do I do it all perfectly? Of course not, but that's really not the point. When he told me and my new wife to move across the United States so I can work at a homeless shelter I never imagined it might be at the expense of my own health, at the expense sometimes of even my family life, and most of my time. I'm not doing what I do to be famous, not because I want to be seen, but actually because this is the cross I carry and when I do so willingly my life glorifies Father God the most.
It is not penance for what I've done but rather it keeps my flesh in submission to His Spirit within me. The flesh that would seek to control and dominate my life in one rebellious instant.
See the Lord showed me today that He's the one who controls our health, our finances, and our future. I know we all know that, but sometimes when we have to sacrifice the things most important to us......... we compromise.
Instead of taking Isaac to the altar, we go there prepared with a second best sacrifice like Cain. That's why he killed Abel, because he didn't want to give God all that he had, he just wanted to give him what was easy and when he saw that Abel was literally able to do what he couldn't do, he hated him for it.
Such it is with us when we say we want to live a life that glorifies God but aren't willing to carry our own cross.
What is the cross that you are called to bear right now, and are you bearing it willfully for the purpose of glorifying Father god? Are you carrying it because of what he accomplished on His cross upon that hill?
If you're bearing it well, that's Covenant relationship and He always does His part, even when we don't do ours. But when we do our part, when that happens whether in our relationship with the Father, within our marriage, or within our covenant relationships within the body we will always see God glorified the most.
This is where wisdom comes in because all that we think we've had to give up to carry our cross....... well, our Father delights in us and in covenant He blesses us and when He does........it's always better than anything we could've ever imagined or come up with on our own.
🔥❤️🔥
