Wednesday, August 10, 2011

When God Lives And Breathes In You...

At Pentecost and ever since, the outside God has been all about moving inside every fully devoted believer who will turn from acts of sinning, be cleansed from the attitude of Sin, and will wholeheartedly welcome Him in as Lord. What an inheritance He has offered to those who will belong exclusively to Him -- God's Holy Spirit abiding within!

This powerful passage from Romans 8, is an exclamation point behind the reality of Pentecost. Powerful, indeed:

(9-11) But if God Himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of Him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells — even though you still experience all the limitations of sin — you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He'll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

(12-14) So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

(15-17) This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who He is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us — an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with Him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with Him!

(18-21) That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

-- Romans 8:9-21 (The Message)

Holiness Unto The LORD!
Grateful

2 comments:

KLW said...

What is dead in your life, your emotions, your finances, your relationships, your family, or circumstances? Maybe you feel dead inside? Do you feel God is far away and you don't feel close to Him? Allow God to come and breathe new life into your spirit.

i am Grateful... Kerry i am. said...

Yes, Lord, I am desperate for you. You are my Breath of Life.