the truth: apart from Christ I AM failure! I operate in my flesh and he says that anything done apart from faith is sin so apart from Him I am nothing. The good news is He takes that self life and exchanges it for His life. Jesus was (and is) a success! He fulfilled the whole law, living a perfect life therefore owing no debt yet he payed the full price for everything:
Isaiah 53amplified version shows:pay attention to specific things that Jesus bore on the cross so we would have to...
3He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men (yes i know the feeling), a Man of sorrows and pains(been there too), and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him. (have you ever had any of THESE feelings)
4Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy] (YES! did you hear that?! he took on our griefs, our distresses: those are NOT OURS to bear!!!!!!!)
5But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities(our twisted thinking/lies we believe); the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.(WHOLE: Lacking NOTHING! You are whole! In Christ... ask Him how he completes you specifically in this moment!)
our sin, our grief, the sins of those who hurt us... ALL things so that He could give us HIS life and identity: perfect, righteous and holy(set apart:special) and WHOLE! and that is who we are... do we always act like it? no! but that's the new me! i am in Christ- in His family. and ask asks me to ACT like it!
He MADE us with the needs to be loved, accepted, worth something, and secure and only He can fulfill those needs. And for some reason we try to fill them ourselves. Praise God that he cares enough to allow us to be broken of our own filling methods, making us empty so
that He can be intimate with us: So HE can fill all those needs. That's incredible truth I'm learning... and He's walking me through that so HE can fill those needs in the deepest intimate way.
Living in Christ is NOT about results. If we're walking in the spirit and trusting by faith that He's doing anything and everything through us from showering to studying to sleeping that is what shows forth as gold. the rest is dead works. wood hay and stubble. so if i trust christ to take my boards exam (which is july 11 aahh!) through me and i fail, he sees it as a success. he took the test through me
and so i accept that he wanted me to fail. yep it hurts like crap but i offer those feelings up and out to Him and receive the truth IN THAT MOMENT about the situation. EXCHANGING my self life for HIS abundant one. beauty for ashes, a garment of praise for my heaviness, freedom for the captive and so on...
Isaiah 61 (imagine Jesus saying this to you! He wants to do this in you personally. He IS your 'personal savior', ya know!)
1THE SPIRIT of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to preach the Gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor, and afflicted; He has sent me to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prison and of the eyes to those who are bound,
2To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord [the year of His favor] [a]and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
3To grant [consolation and joy] to those who mourn in Zion--to give them an ornament (a garland or diadem) of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment [expressive] of praise instead of a heavy, burdened, and failing spirit--that they may be called oaks of righteousness [lofty, strong, and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice, and right standing with God], the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified...
7Instead of your [former] shame you shall have a twofold (wow more that i could ask or imagine; Eph 3:20)recompense;
instead of dishonor and reproach [your people] shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double [what they had forfeited]; everlasting joy shall be theirs.(so surrender AAALLLL things to Him... you never know what he'll do with those things)
...And I will faithfully give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant or league with them.
9And their offspring shall be known among the nations and their descendants among the peoples. All who see them [in their prosperity] will recognize and acknowledge that they are the people whom the Lord has blessed.
10I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation (yep, that's WHOLENESS, lacking nothing), He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Do you see the before and after? Allow God to minister to you in this moment. He wants even more that you to replace lies with truth and to meed your deepest needs. When He does that, THEN i can have peace because i trust him... There is so much
power in receiving HIS life. Praise God for brokenness. for breaking our ties of controlling our lives and flesh so he can do His thing.
I want so badly to know everything in these classes i am taking so I read all i can, stay up late and ponder, watch more videos, listen to more sermons but that's not how God wants me to do it. All i got was exhaustion, frustration, and burnout: fruit of the flesh.
He is unique and does not think like me and does not teach like i think he teaches. His holy spirit will lead meinto ALL truth! (as my finite mind can handle it)
ALL he asks is that we TRUST him. THEN i find rest and peace for my soul, knowing that He will do what HE wants. Yay! Freedom to rest and know he will do it and I dont have to (because I can't) my job is to believe receive and respond. I praise God for these sweet times. Time that we see that HE is all we need and HE is all that matters! What a testimony to a lover who pursues you and me like mad... relieving you of burdens that aren't yours to bear, the circumstances that aren't yours to control, so he can
love on you!
I will continue to pray for the Lord to reveal truth to all of us about Himself and the gospel in our daily lives!
Knowing Him is the best. If I do not know God, I have nothing.
