God uses four powerful tools to change you into the person He has destined you to be. These divine workings can be at work in your heart constantly even when you are busy at work or getting needed rest.
God is living and He is powerful. When He called you, it probably didn’t take you long to realize you were going to have a difficult time measuring up. Many new believers often complain that, after accepting Christ, they feel overwhelmed with all that is required of them. Unfortunately, there is a real lack of understanding of the resources God has provided us as children to do His will. Living for God is difficult when attempted with one’s own strength, ability and resources. In fact, it is not just difficult; it is impossible. Even if we do very well (like the older brother in Luke 15), we still fall short of what God has called us to. This is a lesson in the school of discipleship that all of Christ’s followers must learn: “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
These four secrets are all brought to you courtesy of the cross of Christ. Let’s look at the first secret, what it accomplishes and what it takes to have it at work in your life.
The Blood Of Jesus
Let’s quote one my favorite authors and one of my favorite books, Andrew Murray in “Living the New Life”.
“It is sin that is the cause of our misery. It is sin that provoked God and brought His curse on man. He hates sin with a perfect hatred and will do everything to root it out. It is to take away sin that God gave His Son – that Jesus gave himself.” [Chapter 10 - A Savior from Sin]
In the proceeding three chapters of this guide for new believers, Andrew Murray outlines how God has completely dealt with our problem with sin and how we must bring our sins to God. I will give the quick synopsis.
(1) Come to Jesus with every sin. Christ is ordained by God to take away your sin. Don’t hide it. Don’t ignore it. Don’t try to be better. Bring your sin to Jesus and ask Him to take it away.
(2) Believe it is Jesus in you that overcomes sin, not you. Surrender your powers to His ultimate and gracious power. His life in you will repel sin from you and crucify old desires for the forbidden.
(3) If you fall, confess your sin specifically to Jesus. Let your confession be a surrender to His righteousness in you and a forsaking of unrighteousness at His feet.
(4) Believe in His forgiveness. Jesus has the power to forgive. Jesus desires to forgive. Jesus promises to forgive.
[Even now, you may feel the Lord Jesus knocking on your heart to give something up. Right now, the very best thing you could do while reading this post is get reconciled with God. So go ahead. Do what was just discussed here.] Ok. feel better? Wow. What a Savior who loves us. He wanted you to read this. He wants you close to His heart, not separated with sin in your heart.
(5) There is a difference between forgiveness and cleansing. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” The KJV states “cleanse us”. The promise is to both forgive and cleanse.
Dirty in the Back Yard
Imagine yourself as a kid who went out to go play in a mud puddle after your mom specifically told you not to. You eventually have to come back home and you arrive at the door covered in guilt. Sincerely, with a puckered bottom lip, you utter the somber words “Mom, I really screwed up today and did exactly what you told me not to do. I am not worthy to be your son anymore and all I ask is that I could live with the dog in the garage.” Pity fills your mom’s heart as she couldn’t ever imagine you living with the dog in the garage. Besides your dog doesn’t even live in the garage and the dog just had a bath. So she says, “I forgive you.”
Ok. At this point everything is cool between you and your mom. But there is still one problem. You are still filthy. Forgiveness removes the guilt of sin. Your mom grabs the hose and has a hoot spraying cold water on your little rebellious body. After washing you clean and toweling you off, you are ready to come back into your Father’s house.
God’s Cleansing Instrument of Choice
The water hose in this illustration is the Blood of Jesus and thankfully it is not cold. And God doesn’t really have a hoot hosing us off. The sacrifice of His only Son was no light matter and our sin truly does break His heart. The Cross was the ultimate expression of His love for you. The scripture makes it clear that the Blood of Jesus is living. Let’s go back to Andrew Murray:
“Forgiveness and cleansing are both through the blood of Jesus. The blood breaks the power that sin has in heaven to condemn us. The blood also breaks the power of sin in the heart which holds us captive. The blood has a ceaseless operation in heaven from moment to moment. The blood has likewise a ceaseless operation in our heart – to purify the heart from the sin which always seeks to penetrate from the flesh. The blood cleanses the conscience from dead works to serve the living God. The marvelous power that the blood has in heaven, it also has in the heart.”
The Blood of Jesus can be at work in us constantly. First, we must ask. God has conditioned His workings on earth to prayer. So ask in prayer for the Blood of Jesus to go to work in you. Second, have faith. Trust God’s word on this one. It will be according to your faith. God has conditioned prayer to faith. With faith, prayer is answered.
Today, ask and believe God to activate the Blood of Jesus in your heart to cleanse, remove and disable sin in your life. Believe me, you will be amazed. Once I was in the dumps and I prayed for this and found myself just hungry for God and His Word over the next few days. I wasn’t trying to psyche myself out to get into the Word or enter into prayer. The desire was just there and I knew it was the Blood of Christ working in me, crucifying my sinful desires to live apart from God.
In the next few weeks, I will share the other 3 divine resources God has provided for us that can be constantly at work in us, changing us to be more and more like Christ.
Subscribe to the feed and stay tuned for part 2.
In our spirit.
You may have emotional moments in the manifest presence of God. You may experience physical phenomenon as you sense God’s presence overloading your senses. But for many believers, these really emotional moments in God’s presence have mistaken this the way the presence of God will always be manifested. The result is if we are not ‘feeling’ something, then we must not be in His presence. Our spirit was originally created for God’s presence like a fish was created to live in water. Water is the natural environment for a fish. The presence of God is the natural environment where your spirit belongs. When sin reigned in our life, our spirit was dead due to these transgressions. Awareness of God’s nearness within us was not possible. With the cleansing of our sins when we asked Christ to be the Lord and Savior of our lives, God made our spirit come back to life by the Holy Spirit. Now our spirit has the capacity to house the very presence of God.
Not always with strong emotions.
Yet, often when this presence, that we have gotten so used to be apart from, returns, it can be accompanied with strong emotions and even physical reactions. What do you expect? Your spirit, once dead, is not only alive but is experiencing the love you were always created to know and receive. But as our spirit, soul and body gets accustomed to His presence, we often find less emotions. This can be disturbing at first, since we often grow accustomed to these emotions and associating these emotions with His presence. But it is vital that you move past associating God’s manifest presence with physical and emotional manifestations. By getting settled into abiding in His presence with your spirit, you will find a greater consistency and intimacy with the Lord.
© Copyright by Walt Dowdy
When we are born again, eternal life enters and renews our spirit. Our spirit is made alive by the Holy Spirit’s entrance into our hearts.
“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. – Titus 3:4-7
This is the first and foundational experience of life in God’s presence. Jesus said he would come to his disciples. He indicated this would take place through the Holy Spirit. He said, I will send another comforter. The word used for ‘another’ means of the same. So that means, just as Christ dwelled with the disciples, conversing, teaching, and breaking bread in fellowship, so the Holy Spirit would be intimately close to us at all times. The Holy Spirit will continue with the role Jesus played in the flesh. The beauty of this is that Jesus was confined to his physical body. Only so many people could experience such intimacy with God through Christ on the earth. But through the finished work of the cross, he made it possible for all who believe to have him just as close to us as he was to the disciples as we read in the Gospels.
One day I was pondering this and I said to the Lord as I was walking out of a building to my car: “Lord, I know you are with me right now by the Holy Spirit. But it would be really cool to be walking with you in person right now.” I felt the Lord interject, “But I am walking with you right now. I am just as real right now as if I was in the flesh.” He continued speaking to me as if we literally were walking side by side back to my car. But my mind began to drift. My thoughts began to drown out his voice. Realizing what was happening, I said, “I’m sorry Lord. That wouldn’t happen if you were walking with me in the flesh.” He responded, “There were many times my disciples heard what I was saying with their ears, but did not hear with their hearts because their minds were distracted.” I realized then, that even the disciples took his physical presence for granted.
Please know that though the Lord Jesus is physically in heaven, he is also here on the earth through the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit in you, he walks and he talks to you. There are many times, being a classic ADD guy, my wife ends a paragraph of what she was saying to me with “what do you think?” I’ve learned she appreciates honesty more than my clever excuses and attempts to be cute. I look at her and say, “I have no idea what you just said to me. I am sorry, I wasn’t listening.” Walking in the Spirit and fellowshipping with Jesus is no different. You are going to miss what he is saying and what he is doing because your mind is else where.
Now note, if you are monk in a monastery and your job is to clean dishes, it may be appropriate to keep your undivided conscious attention on the Lord all day long. If you are in full time ministry, where your work is to pray, worship and intercede, this would be obvious. But for those who are lawyers, engineers, doctors, writers and many other professions that require an extensive amount of focused brain power on each task at hand, do know that the Lord is with us and is not standing behind us with a puppy dog pout because we have to work. Man was created to work. But also note, God calls us all to Sabbath rest with him. This is the set aside time that we focus. Just as I set aside time everyday to just be with my family without any real agenda, I am commanded to do the same with the Lord. Just be with him. Draw close to Him. Shut up and listen. Share honestly with Him. Trust Him. I also set a goal to block off a 24 hour period in the week where it is solely God and family time. Work is not allowed. We may have an agenda of how to spend this time but ultimately our goal is just draw near to the Lord and hear his voice and love on one another as a family. Keep it simple.
From these regular sabbath times with the Lord, you will find His presence abiding throughout the day. And upon appropriate breaks throughout the day, you will find it is an ease to just simply direct the activity of His Spirit in your spirit towards the Lord in praise and thanksgiving and worship. Able to hear His voice. Able to receive His Life at work in your spirit.
“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” - Ephesians 1:18-19
© Copyright by Walt Dowdy
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