Day 145 - Crucified With Christ

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries                         LMCM

Nacogdoches, Texas                                                           Gal. 2:20  KJV

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in My Weakness for His Strength - # 3

If Christians could just get this one truth, life as a Christian could be better understood and ultimately enjoyed.

Day 145

  

Crucified With Christ

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with {Him} in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also {in the likeness} of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with {Him} that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts. --Romans 6:1- 12

The believer could not handle being attached directly to the Father, but Jesus attaches him to Himself through an umbilical cord. Jesus is the transformer that makes the power coming to the believer safe; He is the mediator in heaven providing a constant flow so that the attached believer can always be soaked with His “I.” In a very real sense, then, the believer is in heaven with Him, and conversely, when the believer is on earth, so is Christ. He will carry out His work through the believer while He is in heaven, much like the Father did through Him while He was on the earth. A believer has entered into the same kind of relationship that Jesus while on earth had with the Father. A believer has what Jesus had, an “I” that of its own self can do nothing, but he will do greater things, because when Christ was on the earth, He was working toward victory, but the Spirit that now dwells in a Christian works from victory. A believer will do so much by doing nothing! He must not have tunnel vision and see himself as either independent or a passive tool, either in control of every action or having no control over his actions. The spiritual place, called “abiding,” is neither, best illustrated by the vine and branch. As a branch the believer is unique and independent but must use the freedom to choose to do nothing unless the Lord is doing it through him. The believer needs to see he is in control of his actions, and the action he needs to take is inviting Jesus to come and soak him and be his life in the present situation. In the end he will have an expression of Christ through him that is not he. Throughout the recorded life of Jesus we see Him proving that this spiritual place exists, and though few today might discover it, it does exist.

Those present at Pentecost were unique; they had believed in Jesus before all of His victories had been accomplished. They believed in Jesus but had yet to have their “I’s” crucified and replaced with His. Therefore, after His resurrection, as these various groups of believers were gathered together, Jesus, in one climactic moment, did an instantaneous, mass removal of the carnal “I’s” in these believers, replacing them with His divine “I.” The people found themselves without their carnal “I’s,” attached to the Vine, with the flow of the all-powerful new “I,” the Holy Spirit, in them. Each was given, along with the consistent fruit of the Spirit/”I,” a unique expression of Jesus through them in the form of a spiritual gift. It is here that we first see the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is exactly Jesus, just as Jesus was exactly God; to see Jesus was to see the Father. To see the true manifestation of the Holy Spirit will be to see the exact expressions of Jesus.

As a side note, Jesus was never weird! In the Hindu world, the gods are always weird, with oddities such as a man, monkey, or cow god. Jesus never portrayed God as something strange, abnormal, or out of place; He did not go off into any visions or dreams. He was not trying to be mysterious. He was not starting a cult and threatening people to stay with Him. He was not psychopathic but balanced and sane, addressing the real issues. Time with Him was worthwhile, He never misled, nor did He go on continual emotional rampages. The expression of His Spirit will be no different. The new “I,” His Spirit, or His Life, was not given so the believer could have an emotional high point. It was not given as a sedative to block the world in which we live. It is not given to resurrect the old “I.” Sometimes those who by temperament are Doers believe that the Holy Spirit came to make them prophets once they receive Christ. For them the “Holy Spirit” is power over others. The new “I” definitely is not given to exalt man, nor is it given to entertain. The Holy Spirit will give experiences manifesting the very life of Jesus, the life portrayed in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. The flesh is not interested in these, for with His filling, the believer will find himself being offended until he cannot be offended, forgiving, laying down his life, returning good for evil, walking across the room to kiss an enemy, and failing at everything he independently tries to do. Many genuinely do not want to be filled with His Spirit; they prefer a counterfeit spirit that promises to meet their perceived needs. Well, amen, we have all been there, but when we admitted where we were, we could leave the miserable place. 

I personally believe there are still some, as in the days of the early Church, believing in Jesus but not yet knowing that the old “I” is crucified and replaced with the new “I.” In this frustrating state the believer is trying to whip the old anti-Christ “I” into imitating Jesus. Why would I say that such believers exist today? I believe that I was one. I have always believed in the man Jesus, and I actually always believed that I was called to minister. Yet I never knew that my “I” was crucified, that “I” was buried and raised again. I never knew He could be my new “I,” LIFE. Then one day He revealed it to me. He stopped being my Savior from sin and became my very life. It is so nice to be alone with Him and soaking up His “I”!

Read, and re-read this day’s words over and over.  Have you come to the point of KNOWING that your old “I” was crucified?  And if crucified, is dead.  And yet, you have a new “I.”  And your new “I” is really Him…His Spirit.  He is alive in you, a Believer.  His LIFE is now your LIFE.  And His LIFE will live through you to:

·         never be offended

·         always forgive

·         experience Matthew 5, 6, & 7

And if you are not experiencing those, rest assured you can say, “That’s not Him, that’s my flesh.”  (Read one of the lists of the “flesh” in Galatians 5:19-21).  And decide to say, “Jesus, You are welcome to be my life today.”  Choose to move forward and watch what the Lord is doing through you.  One “list” of His doing is in Galatians 5:22-23. 

Let me share something I do every time I get up to preach or teach.  I pray something like this:  “Lord Jesus, no one needs to hear from me.  They need You and what You have to offer.  So I abandon myself to You as best I know how.  I want only Your thoughts to be the thoughts that pass through my mind.  I want only Your words to be the words that pass through my mouth.  And by faith, I believe that You will do this.  Thank You, Lord!” 

This type of prayer could be used in all sorts of life’s situations.  Well, amen.

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point             Red - GP, Greatest Promises

Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches         Pink – PV, Priceless Victory

Lee McDowell Christian Ministries

P. O. Box 633244    Nacogdoches, Tx 75963                       936-559-5696