Jesus on the cross
What does it mean to live in Christ and to also die in Christ? To live and die in Christ simply means when the most important thing in your life is Jesus Christ and also means that when you are about to die, you do not die without hope, you die with a hope that you will join Jesus when you die. That He will take you with Him to heaven. One may ask how it is possible for a person to make Jesus Christ the most important thing in his life when there are so many distractions in the world. How can a person connect with the person of Jesus Christ in such a way that this person almost breathes, walks and talks Jesus? How can someone turn out to be that personally devoted to Jesus?
It is one thing to believe in God. It is another thing to be dedicated to God. Dedication can only occur when someone is touched by someone else or something else at a deep level. This is called a personal encounter. No one can force his or herself to be committed to God in an uncommon way, there always has be a reason to want to make that commitment.
In order not to make this complicated, we can look at it in everyday terms, starting from the things that we are passionate about. There are things that matter most to us in life. The very thing we live for. Some people live to make money and be able to afford a luxurious lifestyle whereas some people live to make money in order to take good care of their loved ones. Whatever a person's passion is, it always touches the person's heart and soul. It always has to do with some life experience that makes us resolve in a particular way and make a particular thing most important in our lives. For e.g, the most important thing to me is the environment and humanity. I want to have enough money so that I can help with preserving our earthly home and helping people in need or in suffering but how does Jesus come into the picture? This is how Jesus comes into the picture: everyone who wants to be successful in whatever field always needs a support system, a value system and a belief system. A good support, value and belief system has to be one that is reliable, true and tested overtime. All these systems can be summed up as backup. Your backup is supposed to be strong enough to help you stand tall and powerful in this world. If it is not, people who oppose your goals with stronger backups will take you out. What makes Jesus so special? Why did I make Him my main backup? Why should you make Him your backup?
First off, I was born into Christianity, I didn't get converted into it. it was more of a religion to me than a lifestyle. When I got older, I started asking questions. I wanted to see the reality of what I have been taught all these years. It was until I had a personal encounter with God, with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that everything started to make sense to me. All the Bible stories I was told as a little girl that sounded more like fairy tales started to become real to me. I began to see power in them. I would not want to go into the details of my personal encounter with God but in it, I saw love. I also saw power. I saw amazing, overwhelming love. Great power and the all consuming passion of the love of God. I do not think that I am living in Christ enough. My passion for God does not equate or measure up to the passion I saw in Paul and the early church.
Philippians 1: 21 - 23 - " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:"
This is Kings James Version of the Bible. I know it is written in old English but you can see the passion with which Paul spoke. That to live is Christ and to die is gain because when he dies , he gets be with the Lord, never to be away from Him. Such passion, such fire, such love.
The only thing that make a person this drawn to anyone is a personal revelation. Paul has seen a part of Jesus that most of us haven't. He has come to know and understand the personality of Jesus so much that he is drawn to Jesus and wants more of Him. It is quite simple to understand: Jesus Christ is the word of God made flesh, He is the resurrection, the life, the light, the truth, the way, the door..
He is all of these in a spiritual way and also a person. He has the same likeness with God, equal with God, that makes Him eternal, an everlasting king and Lord of all but most of all, he is a person. The fact that he is a person makes it possible for us to relate with Him within the context of a relationship.
I relate with Jesus within the context of a relationship. There was a time when I didn't know Him. He was just like every other face I know or every other name I've heard about. I did not know Him personally. I sure wondered who he really was but a relationship did not start until I began to know him personally. I felt His love, I saw His power , I understood why He died, He spoke to my heart and I fell in love with Him because that was when I understood Him for who He was.
Living in Christ is being all consumed about Jesus, it means to almost breathe him every second, he is always on your mind, always in your heart, you talk about him, you walk with him and you walk him. Christianity is theoretical, practical but mostly a spiritual lifestyle. There is real power in Christianity, in Jesus Christ, in God and in the Holy Spirit. This is because God is good, kind, merciful, gracious and powerful.
Living in Christ has a lot to do with a divine supernatural being, the Holy Trinity. They are real and true. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. You can feel their power and reality in two ways, either you believe in them and they reveal themselves, or you do not believe in them, defy their authority and watch them put you in your place.
The spiritual power in Christianity is unlocked when you believe in God and in His son, Jesus Christ with all your heart. I wouldn't blame them for making the rules that way, I would do the same if I were them. If i were some powerful, divine goddess (by the way, I am the daughter of the most high God. So I am much more powerful than a divine goddess because I have a portion of my Father's spirit in me which makes me a God too. The daughter of God is a god too) who was invisible, I would only reveal myself to those who believe that I am real because they are the only ones qualified to see me. They believed in me without seeing me. You see?
The Bible can be just any book to you or a book of power for you when you begin to believe the words you read with the heart and mind of a child. When you believe in Jesus Christ, you have to call on the Holy Spirit to help you on your journey of getting to know Him. Knowing Jesus is a spiritual exercise. There are things about Him that only the holy Spirit can reveal to you and explain to you.
Believe it or not, every strand of the personality of Jesus Christ that you get know and assimilate into your spirit is an addition of power to you. This is because He is the word of God personified. Getting to know Him is getting to know the word of God. When you assimilate the word of God into your spirit, you are assimilating power and glory. Wonder working power and glory that will transform you and make you more like Jesus Christ. The more you know Jesus Christ, the more you will be like Him, the more you will want more of Him.
He is light, life, truth , the way and the resurrection. The true vine, the bread of life, the good shepherd, the lion and the lamb, a man of war, the alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
He is the one. He is the one.
If you know anything about demonic possessions, you will understand what I am trying to say. He is the one. How does a person gets possessed by a demon(s)? Through books or meddling with dark objects. These things bear dark, evil power. When you expose yourself to them and meddle with them, they can take over you. In the same way, when you get yourself involved with the word of God, with the life, with the way, with the resurrection, the Redeemer, the Savior, the bread of life, the true vine(look at the beautiful phrases and titles he has. They all point to his powerful , beautiful and glorious essence), the lamb of God and the good shepherd, you are getting in touch with love, power, light, healing, transformation, glory and might.
This is why anyone would want to live in Him. This is the reason why anyone would want to live for Him, to be all about him, to breathe him because he is worthy of all our attention.
His love is amazing. So fierce, consuming, overwhelming and passionate, it will make you tear up. Jesus is so sweet, so understanding, so kind, so merciful, so forgiving, so accepting and the more you experience Him, the more you will learn to treat others the way he has treated you. You will learn to love like him because you will have felt the weight of his love and mercy.
Knowing Jesus is a spiritual journey that transforms you into a new being.
John 17:3 - "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
When you see the words of the Bible, do not be discouraged whether you will understand them or not. You cannot understand those words with your intellect, it is a spiritual book and only the Holy Spirit can interpret the hidden meaning of every verse to your own spirit before you can get it.
Isaiah 53:11 - "He shall see [the fruit] of the travail of His soul and be satisfied; by His knowledge of Himself [which He possesses and imparts to others] shall My [uncompromisingly] righteous One, My Servant, justify many and make many righteous (upright and in right standing with God), for He shall bear their iniquities and their guilt [with the consequences, says the Lord]."
Jeremiah 9:24 - "But let him who glories glory in this: that he understands and knows Me [personally and practically, directly discerning and recognizing My character], that I am the Lord, Who practices loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord."
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