When I made the decision to make Jesus my Savior, Lord over my life I truly had NO idea that that decision would not only be the MOST important decision I would EVER make, but I also had no idea how true Galatians 2:20 is:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Jesus spoke about Holy Spirit right before His ascension in John 14:26:
“However, the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything. He will remind you of everything that I have ever told you.”
Over the last year, I have come to experience Holy Spirit in a more personal way than ever before in my 34 years in Christ. He is the third person in the Trinity and it is amazing, when you decide to study the Word of God and spend time with Him in prayer, you develop a deep individual love for all three parts of the Trinity that make up our God. You can read more about the Trinity in my home page (listed in pink directly below, just click on it and scroll to the bottom and you will read the definition I have put for our Triune God, hopefully that will assist for those who are new in faith and trying to have a better understanding of the Three in One).
My special love for the Father is because He loved me enough to want to PERSONALLY show me (and this goes for you too!), that He would go to the greatest extreme possible to allow me to have a right relationship with Him. As in John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
GOD SENT HIS SON FOR YOU! HE SENT HIS SON FOR ME! BECAUSE HE LOVES US!
My special love for Jesus is because He left the glories of Heaven, descended to the earth, born of the virgin, Mary, to live a sin-less life and die on the cross for forgiveness of MY sins (and yours!), rose from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Father, EVEN NOW interceding on MY behalf! (And yours!) And IS coming AGAIN so that wherever HE is WE shall also be!
Lastly (but not least), Holy Spirit – Holy Spirit IS the Third Figure in our One Triune God. And over the last year, I have developed a deep personal relationship with Him. I guess it wasn’t until I really reached a point in my walk with the LORD that I definitely decided I needed to keep Him front and center and not off to the side somewhere. I reached a point where I realized I REALLY am dependent upon God to carry me through this thing called life. Holy Spirit caught my attention because although He has BEEN with me since I accepted Christ (resided in my heart), I found myself REALLY seeking after Him. REALLY wanting to learn from Him. Really willing to listen and to ask questions, as He is our Teacher, our Counselor, our Guide. He gives us understanding and wisdom and when we submit to His authority, He changes the things within us that we don’t even know are keeping us from walking a more intimate walk with the Father. It has been over the course of the year that I find myself clinging to the instruction of Holy Spirit. Hungry for Him to teach me MORE MORE MORE MORE. I want to know! Like a beloved Teacher, He has become my Mentor and if I could, I would spend ALL of my days gleaning wisdom and knowledge and understanding of God’s Word because He reaches me where I am at, His voice is gentle, loving and patient. I am moved almost to tears writing this because I love Him so much and it is only truly recently that I sought to deepen this part of our Triune God. I feel like Holy Spirit gets the short end of the stick, people don’t know Him or see Him as they do God the Father or God the Son, but God the Holy Spirit is JUST as dear as the other two figures of the Trinity that make up the One True God. You just have to determine to know Him better – and I’m so glad I am.
Our God IS a personal God – but as with any “personal relationship” you have to put forth the effort to KNOW who it is you are seeking to have a relationship with. You have to determine when to speak (pray) and when to listen and when done together, your heart gets filled with an overflowing amount of love and peace for a God who TRULY loves you!
Dying to self has shown me that it is SO much MORE rewarding to LIVE IN HIM! There is a fulfillment that floods your soul when you allow God to do a work in you! The truth IS you CANNOT “out-love” God!
Dying to self is allowing the very life and breathe that God put in you to blossom and grow! And the more you know Him and determine to walk in His love, the more His love (put in you by Holy Spirit) begins to blossom and grow IN you! GOD IS LIFE. In order to experience the FULLNESS of LIFE, you HAVE to be willing to die to self. I’m not going to say it isn’t painful – it can be – spiritual growing pains HURT. But the reward is so much sweeter! When I look at the person I am today – after 34 years of being in Christ, I am NOT that same person I was before I came to Christ! I am not LOOKING for the “approval of people” – been there, done that, no thank you! People and their perceptions of you is one that is forever changing! Like the weather! But God – His love IS steadfast! He will NEVER leave nor forsake you! Being in a relationship with Him is the MOST important decision you will EVER make. And it is a love that will last FOREVER! FOR ALL eternity! NO one can snatch you from the Father’s hand!
Becoming part of God’s Called Remnant, is finding the Way, the Truth and the Life – because God created you to BE in a relationship with Him – so that soul hunger, that NEED is satiated when the spiritual blinders are removed from your eyes and your soul is fed the love of God like serious “love manna” from Heaven! GOD LOVES YOU becomes a reality and not some “written statement.”
So in dying to Christ – what comes alive is eternal. It is genuine. It is a “taste of what’s to come.” I think of it this way, what we see in the here and now is only a water color version of the grandeur and splendor that awaits us. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:9:
“However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—“
How could ANYONE think for a minute that Heaven is going to be boring?!!! Seriously??? Think for a moment of the things that you enjoy doing in the here and now – maybe it is fishing? Maybe it is being out in nature? Maybe it’s theatre or singing or something? Well – GOD CREATED NATURE! And I really believe that if WE can admire what God has done with nature in the here and now (and the beauty of the world has dimmed with sin and the fall of man, so we aren’t seeing it in the vividness that God had originally created it…) How could we IMAGINE that a God with such imagination and wisdom and beauty WHO even created YOU (and me) would create ANYTHING that is LESS than magnificent and extraordinary???? GOD CREATED MUSIC! Even the simplest things (to name just a few) like hearing birds sing or the waves of the ocean crash against piers, or crickets chirping – all around us is the attestation of God’s glory! We only need to open our eyes to see, our ears to hear and hearts to receive ALL that God would truly have for us to receive from Him! In order to live FULLY we MUST allow Holy Spirit to assist us in dying to ourselves and our sinful ways and things that make us LESS than what God intended us to be. So I say, “YES and AMEN” Holy Spirit! Or as the Bible says in Psalms 51:10:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”
Dying to self is learning to live in Him. And in doing so, you can say as in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57:
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
May you TRULY experience death to self and life in Him to see how loving a God who created us is… May God make it so in your life, and may He make it so in mine as well. Praise His Holy, precious Name. \0/ \0/ \0/
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