Page 29 - lifeandgrace
P. 29
Now this is our pattern: Jesus was doing and saying only what he saw and heard the Father doing and
saying. That is our pattern. We must be doing and saying only what Jesus is doing and saying. How do
we accomplish that? We let Him live out His life through us. As noted above, we become that living
sacrifice of Rom 12:1 (RSV) “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your
bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
What does this mean? It means to completely lay down our will in all things, give up all our desires,
all our hopes, all our dreams, in favor of Him determining what He wants to do through our lives. He
wants to live out His life through us. Will we still be us? Will we still have a personality of our own?
Most assuredly! If God had wanted robots, He could have created them just as easily as He created man.
No, God desired a being that He could have fellowship with, a being that of his own volition would
choose God and God’s desires for His life. God wanted a relationship and what He does in this earth, He
wants to do it in and through us. If we accomplish it on our own and just allow Him to help us when we
cannot quite make it, He has no interest in that kind of life with us. He desires to be our very life.
Eternal Life is not some thing, it is a person: Jesus Christ. He is living in us and desires to do all
things through us. 2Cor 12:10 (RSV) "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong." Eph 6:10 (RSV)
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might."
In the Old Testament, the Lord was doing the very same thing. How were the Israelites to take the
land of Canaan? In the strength of the Lord! Consider Jericho in Joshua 6:20, consider Gideon’s success
in Judges 8:22, consider Jehoshaphat in 2 Kings 3:22-24. In all these circumstances it was the Lord’s
strength that was used to overcome the enemy. In the battle of Jericho, God used marching and trumpet
blowing and the shout of His people to defeat Jericho. In Gideon’s battle, God reduced the army from
thousands down to just 300 so that all could see it very plainly was a miracle of the Lord. In
Jehoshaphat’s victory over Moab, God caused the water to look like blood to fool the Moabite army into
thinking the enemy was defeated. Then Israel arose and defeated the Moabites. All this was plainly the
Lord showing His strength on behalf of Israel. God is only interested in working through us and not us in
our own strength!
Once we see that God wants to work in and through us, as us, we can see that our identity will never
rest in our abilities or our actions or our ideas - nothing of performance will determine our identity. It is
all who we are in Him. So long as we see our identity resting in our actions, good or bad, then we will
look at our performance and if we do well, be proud of ourselves. If we do poorly, we will be ashamed.
God does not want either feeling. He wants to do it all. Nothing we can do will change our identity in
Him.
In Christ, we are holy and righteous and complete. This is truth that will not change. We are His; we
belong to Him. Nothing we do changes that identity, not even sins. Sins do not reduce or diminish the
great truth or identity we have in Him. True, it certainly affects our walk with Him. If our life is a life of
sinning and sins, we will never enjoy the fellowship in Him that is our portion. Why? Because we will
always approach Him with feelings of guilt knowing we have not walked by the spirit but in our own
flesh. The sins in our life do not determine how God regards us, but it does affect how we regard
ourselves and our relationship with Him.
The believer does not have to sin. The believer has a choice; in order to sin, he must choose to sin.
Once the believer understands that the persona called “Sin” (or as we are using the name, “Mr. Sin”)
dwells in him and will always dwell in him and that Satan will always use this persona to get access to
our mind, he can realize that the sinful ideas coming at him are suggestions or ideas from the evil one,
Satan, to defeat him in his mind. (See Rom 7:17 (NKJV) “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin
that dwells in me.") It is not us and never will be us that is proposing the sinful ideas as we now have a
saying. That is our pattern. We must be doing and saying only what Jesus is doing and saying. How do
we accomplish that? We let Him live out His life through us. As noted above, we become that living
sacrifice of Rom 12:1 (RSV) “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your
bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
What does this mean? It means to completely lay down our will in all things, give up all our desires,
all our hopes, all our dreams, in favor of Him determining what He wants to do through our lives. He
wants to live out His life through us. Will we still be us? Will we still have a personality of our own?
Most assuredly! If God had wanted robots, He could have created them just as easily as He created man.
No, God desired a being that He could have fellowship with, a being that of his own volition would
choose God and God’s desires for His life. God wanted a relationship and what He does in this earth, He
wants to do it in and through us. If we accomplish it on our own and just allow Him to help us when we
cannot quite make it, He has no interest in that kind of life with us. He desires to be our very life.
Eternal Life is not some thing, it is a person: Jesus Christ. He is living in us and desires to do all
things through us. 2Cor 12:10 (RSV) "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong." Eph 6:10 (RSV)
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might."
In the Old Testament, the Lord was doing the very same thing. How were the Israelites to take the
land of Canaan? In the strength of the Lord! Consider Jericho in Joshua 6:20, consider Gideon’s success
in Judges 8:22, consider Jehoshaphat in 2 Kings 3:22-24. In all these circumstances it was the Lord’s
strength that was used to overcome the enemy. In the battle of Jericho, God used marching and trumpet
blowing and the shout of His people to defeat Jericho. In Gideon’s battle, God reduced the army from
thousands down to just 300 so that all could see it very plainly was a miracle of the Lord. In
Jehoshaphat’s victory over Moab, God caused the water to look like blood to fool the Moabite army into
thinking the enemy was defeated. Then Israel arose and defeated the Moabites. All this was plainly the
Lord showing His strength on behalf of Israel. God is only interested in working through us and not us in
our own strength!
Once we see that God wants to work in and through us, as us, we can see that our identity will never
rest in our abilities or our actions or our ideas - nothing of performance will determine our identity. It is
all who we are in Him. So long as we see our identity resting in our actions, good or bad, then we will
look at our performance and if we do well, be proud of ourselves. If we do poorly, we will be ashamed.
God does not want either feeling. He wants to do it all. Nothing we can do will change our identity in
Him.
In Christ, we are holy and righteous and complete. This is truth that will not change. We are His; we
belong to Him. Nothing we do changes that identity, not even sins. Sins do not reduce or diminish the
great truth or identity we have in Him. True, it certainly affects our walk with Him. If our life is a life of
sinning and sins, we will never enjoy the fellowship in Him that is our portion. Why? Because we will
always approach Him with feelings of guilt knowing we have not walked by the spirit but in our own
flesh. The sins in our life do not determine how God regards us, but it does affect how we regard
ourselves and our relationship with Him.
The believer does not have to sin. The believer has a choice; in order to sin, he must choose to sin.
Once the believer understands that the persona called “Sin” (or as we are using the name, “Mr. Sin”)
dwells in him and will always dwell in him and that Satan will always use this persona to get access to
our mind, he can realize that the sinful ideas coming at him are suggestions or ideas from the evil one,
Satan, to defeat him in his mind. (See Rom 7:17 (NKJV) “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin
that dwells in me.") It is not us and never will be us that is proposing the sinful ideas as we now have a
