The Epistle of Christ and the Way of the Cross
We sing a beautiful and moving song called, “Open the eyes of my heart Lord”.
This basically should be our daily heart’s cry. What we need is true perspective…which is God’s perspective.
If we have true perspective (God’s perspective) it should impact the way we live our lives. I say should…because it will always be a matter of choice but if you want to fulfil what you have been created to do…you should choose God’s perspective.
The original purpose for man… was…” Let Us make man in Our image” (Gen.1:26). This is still the purpose of man and will always be the purpose of man…a creation that is the reflection of God. That is God’s perspective and the only true perspective.
Jesus, the Son of Man was the “express” (distinctly presented) image of God (Hebrews 1:3).
If Jesus, the express image of God, is the Son of Man, the last Adam, the way…no one comes to the Father but through Him…and if we are meant to be the image of God…then I believe we have the example for who God created us to be. As the image of God, we should look like, behave like…Jesus.
One of the lines in that song is “I just want to see You.”
This has been the final reason for so much of the ministry that we have had so far in this year. We need to see Him and the people around us need to see Him in us.
The Epistle of Christ and the way of the Cross.
In one of our last teachings, we discussed Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church:
2 Corinthians 3:3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
What is Paul saying here? These believers were so transformed by the Holy Spirit that their changed lives were a letter of commendation, a written message that spoke of Christ, and that was proof of the gospel…the Good News…
This is the gospel…Through the sacrifice of Jesus, His death on the Cross…a people became reconciled with the Father. A people who are now under His rule and His protection and provision AND who have become inhabitants of the kingdom of God AND who get to be transformed into His image.
Just like the Corinthian church, you and I are to be those letters…an epistle of Christ. When people look at us and read our lives…they should see Christ revealed. (How will that happen?)
The Call and the way of the Cross.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man, was called to this purpose here on the earth…to reveal the Father and to redeem mankind and reconcile them to the Father…How? Only one way…through the Cross. Jesus Himself had to surrender! This was His ministry on the earth and the road to fulfilling that ministry…was the Cross. Through the Cross, we became the beneficiaries of the gospel.
As beneficiaries of the gospel not only do we get the opportunity to become a people created in His image, a people through whom Christ is living – Christ in us, the hope of glory…BUT ALSO, a people who are called to finish what Christ started. A people who are called to share the gospel…this good news.
Each one is called to this ministry (Ephesians 4:11-13) BUT in order for you and I to be effective sons, led by the Spirit of God (Rom 8: 14) there is a road that we must travel to prepare us for this ministry. It is the way of the cross…our own personal cross.
For our lives to become a visible letter of recommendation of the Lord Jesus Christ…we must embrace the cross as He did. Just as Jesus overcame His flesh…so must we.
Overcoming the flesh and the way of the Cross.
Matthew 16:24-25 – Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his (carnal) life will lose it (the glorious opportunity to reproduce the life of Christ in that moment), but whoever loses his (carnal) life for My sake will find it (the glorious opportunity to reproduce the life of Christ in that moment).
As we understand the revelation of Christ and the cross through the Spirit, it allows us to see the road that we are to take. That road, like Christ, leads us to our own cross. Picking up our cross and dying to our carnal self, thereby overcoming the flesh, which in turn leads to the life of Christ flowing forth from us.
It is this quest, the unique reason for the Holy Spirit to be here on the earth…to reveal the Christ and reveal God the Father, the great I AM…how? Through us, as we die to our flesh so that Christ will be manifested in us…the hope of glory.
We discussed that the only way this is going to happen is by the empowering grace imparted to us by the Holy Spirit. He will transform us…as we surrender to the process.
Romans 8:5-8 – For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded (our own wisdom and reasoning) is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind (our own wisdom and reasoning) is enmity (a state or feeling of active opposition or hostility) against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh (our carnal self) cannot please God.
Romans 8:13 – For if you live according to the flesh (choosing the works of the flesh in Gal. 5:19-21) you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body (choosing to walk according to the fruits of the Spirit – Gal. 5:22-25), you will live.
Romans 8:11 – But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus dwells in you, He (the Father) who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies (how?) through His Spirit who dwells in you. (This portion of scripture deals with being free from indwelling sin).Not a single mistake but this sin is a part of your life.
Does this mean that we fall down on our knees and just cry out for help, expecting the Holy Spirit to do it in us? No, no and again I say NO!
We have a part to play…
Paul knew the dangers, the obstacle that the flesh would be for those who seek to live a Spirit led life.
1 Corinthians 9:24 + 26-27 – Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?
V26-27 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. (I know the goal!) Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air (I know and can recognize my opponent!) But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
There is a price to be paid, it is the way of the cross. Not my will but Yours, my Lord. It is obedience when the flesh is screaming at you, “Don’t want to!” OR “I WANT to!”
For many Christians, honest, sincere, faithful Christians, their Christian walk has become dry and dead, it does not feel full of life and there is no perfume or fragrance of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14-15) in their lives. They are no longer effective in the ministry. Perhaps they are weary and discouraged in their souls. They no longer submit to God and they no longer resist the devil so he runs roughshod over their lives. Perhaps they don’t even recognize the strategy of the enemy to destroy who they were meant to be…What they need is revival.
Revival is not about going back to the past and duplicating something that happened in the past.
It is about something becoming important again. In Revelations 2:4-5 God calls it…”you have left your first love”. Have you left your first love? It happens slowly and subtly…the devil is at work. He, the defeated foe of Christ, wants to steal your life and your identity so that your life will be ineffective.
NB. You can be effective and successful on the “world stage” and be completely ineffective in what you were created for.
Often that revival will be birthed out of chastening… the correction of God, through the word, by the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 12:5 – And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. V7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons.
I have found that following the leading of the flesh very often leads to some form of destruction and our cry in that moment of destruction leads to the chastening of the Father. It isn’t a harsh experience. It is an awakening spiritually that something is wrong and as you repent and surrender to the process, because your love for God compels you, then God the Holy Spirit comes in alongside you to strengthen you with His grace.
Hebrews 12:3-4 – For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. (Jesus was warring in the Spirit to overcome the temptation of the flesh by walking away from the cross. After He submitted to the will of the Father, an angel came down and strengthened Him, What for? Not to take over and do it for Jesus…No, the angel came to strengthen Him in His fight…Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might…BUT Jesus still had to resist and overcome His flesh).
The time has come for the church to come back to the cross. It is time for Christians and churches to flow again in the Spirit.
It is time for judgement (correction, chastening) to start in the house of God. It is an appointed time, where God is bringing revival in the church. Christians are being confronted with the gospel of the cross.
If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the flesh, you will live! You will live in the spirit and you will walk according to the Spirit. You will manifest Christ’s life. You will carry the anointing and the authority of God. You will be effective in your ministry and you will be a blessing to others.
NOW… it is time to pick up your cross and live the crucified life SO THAT you can walk and live in this truth…
How important is this?
- It is your destiny.
- Every trial and tribulation you face is a SPIRITUAL battle!
It does not matter what it is…at the root of it… it is a spiritual battle and it is impossible to win a spiritual battle in the flesh!
Christ I know, Paul I know…but who are you? In all things you want to manifest Christ! Your spirit carrying the life of Christ!
You are a spirit…if you have come to that place where you understand you need Jesus AND you want to be reconciled to the Father and you have prayed the sinner’s prayer of repentance…then you have been spiritually resurrected from the dead and you are born again. A new creation (you – the reborn spirit) in Christ.
You have a soul (mind, will, imagination and emotions) and you live in a body BUT you are a living spirit!
For the most of your life, before you got born again – you, the spirit part of you, lived in spiritual death – a complete disconnect from God.
Your soul and your body ruled your life. You lived by your limited intellect, through your reasoning and by the lusts of the flesh. You did, pretty much, whatever the flesh and the emotions wanted to do.
Now however, having believed in our Lord Jesus Christ and in what He did to reconcile you to our heavenly Father – you…the spirit that was created in the image of God has been born again.
How did this happen? Just like Mary surrendered to the words of God brought by Gabriel, so you surrendered to the word brought to you by the Holy Spirit.
AND just like the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and the power of the Highest overshadowed her to conceive Jesus in her womb…SO the Holy Spirit came upon you and the power of the Highest overshadowed you and resurrected you from spiritual death.
You the real you, the spirit being born of God…wants to do what the Father wants you to do. Now, if you were just spirit, that would be entirely possible…BUT this soul and this body…well, they just want to do what they have always done.
So, you have a war on your hands…this un-renewed soul and your body are at war with what you, the spirit being, wants to do! They have never had a relationship or any real connection with God and they don’t understand spiritual matters.
Romans 8:5-8 – For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded (our own wisdom and reasoning) is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind (our own wisdom and reasoning) is enmity (a state or feeling of active opposition or hostility) against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh (our carnal self) cannot please God.
Then, when we get baptized with the Holy Spirit (John 20:21-22 – the disciples receive the Holy Spirit + Acts 1:4-8 Baptism of the Holy Spirit)…so when we get baptized with the Holy Spirit, our spirit receives power (the ability) to be a witness (evidence of Christ in every facet of life) through the Holy Spirit!
1. When we receive revelation or instruction – it is our spirit being taught by the Holy Spirit.
How? First it enters by the gateway of the mind and as we use our mind to meditate on it, the Holy Spirit births it in our spirit, the only part of us that has power to be a witness or evidence of Christ. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory, being birthed in you… (Just like Mary) by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. (A continual meditation will result in a renewed mind which will come into agreement with our spirit – which wants to obey God).
2. When we receive an unction (the action of anointing someone) – it is our spirit being anointed by the Holy Spirit.
3. Every trial or tribulation is a spiritual battle – it is our spirit, empowered by the Holy Spirit to produce evidence of Christ…that overcomes the battle. (However, our mind must be obedient).
Your mind cannot win this spiritual battle by itself, because it has no spiritual power…it often doesn’t even recognize that it is a spiritual battle and wants to fix it with the intellect. Your mind will either side with your spirit or your flesh (depends on your level of spirituality). Your actions will be determined by what your mind believes.
Your body cannot win any spiritual battle by itself, it needs the instruction from your renewed and surrendered mind and your spirit which has been empowered by the Holy Spirit!
Why? Because only your spirit, empowered by the Holy Spirit and led by the Holy Spirit can win any spiritual battle!
David fought a spiritual battle against Goliath (1 Samuel 17:26, 36-37, 45-47) not a physical battle. It was his absolute faith in God, which brought down Goliath. “The battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.”
Every battle is a spiritual battle and it is designed by the enemy, not God, to keep you carnal and weak and ineffective and controllable!!!
You will NEVER win these battles just by your limited intellect because it is a spiritual war! Spiritual forces do not bow down to “natural, carnal you”. They bow down to the Christ in you…and where does He dwell? In your spirit by the Holy Spirit…Christ in you, the hope of glory!
So, if every battle is a spiritual battle, you cannot succeed in your un- renewed mind or your un-surrendered mind in the fight against it!
You need the armour of God! It is called, “Be strong (how?) in the Lord and in the power of His might!”
– Ephesians 6:10-18.
And what part of you is equipped by this armour? Your spirit.
Again, it is our spirit empowered by the Holy Spirit to produce evidence of Christ that overcomes the battle.
Every spiritual battle requires a spiritual battle plan from the Holy Spirit so that you can be “strong in the Lord and in the power of His might”!!!
You spirit empowered by the Holy Spirit is the only way for the power of God to be made known upon this earth.
Acts 1:8…. Amen… so be it…