“Knowing that all my abiding, good works, surrender, heart change, and mind renewal has been brought about by the helper called the Holy Spirit, I humbly enter your presence with no pride or feelings of personal accomplishment. I do not play the self-pity card or woe is me game by telling you how hard it has been to conquer these mountains of temptation. I have nothing good of my own. With that being said, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for choosing me to be a part of your supreme kingdom. Thank you for adopting me so I may enter your rest. O mighty King, what would you have me do? Since I am your vessel of this amazing helper who is bringing to mind all of your ways, what should be my part in all this?”
I hear the Father say, “Go, enjoy the kingdom. You have my helper inside of you to honor me; you just need to enjoy what I created. Don’t trouble yourself with trying to measure up to standards you can’t achieve apart from my Holy Spirit. Let him will and work my way into your life. Correct course when you veer off. But if your attention is on trying to control my helper in you so you may feel like a worthy servant, it will not be on enjoying the kingdom. Let me sanctify you along the way. You just live about the land with gratitude while I live through you to accomplish my will.”
To spend less energy trying to muster up spiritual strength to overcome mountains and wholly trust that God will work things out for your good and his glory seems like a wonderful way to live. Not worrying about the daily possibilities of falling short and instead spending large amounts of time forgetting not all His benefits surely would cause a peace-filled life. To flip the script and trust the blood of Jesus over sin committed while simultaneously rejoicing in his nearness as a Father must grant us freedom like never before.
There are two things on the table. One is a way of life where you are focused on perfection, and the second where you are captivated by His abiding love. The evidence of living the first way is the powerful desires of guilt, not measuring up, inabilities to overcome, attempts to get right by righteous living, and trying to read yourself back into a relationship with God. The evidence of the second one is in having the countenance of contentment. Walking around this world knowing you are favored and loved, trusting in the spirit's power in you as you trade treasures for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus. The first way offers you strong feelings of accomplishment susceptible to pride and entitlement, and the second way brings you to your knees in thanksgiving with awe and wonder of why He has been so kind to choose you. If you dip your toes in the second way of life, you will find a waterfall of blood cleansing you of sin while you are living and breathing the goodness of God. It’s a very humbling way to live. You see sin, but your hopeful living in the words of your Father triumphs over the remembrance of those sins.
Animal blood and carefully designed sacrificial services were the effective measures for purifying the shortcomings of Israel. Priests, who themselves were unclean and who had to sprinkle that blood around, followed the law so that purification for the flesh could be complete. If this was brought about through the blood of animals, how much more using the blood of Jesus? By His blood He has freed us from striving to purify ourselves. He has freed us from the dead-end efforts to be holy. He has freed us from exhausting ourselves trying to measure up every day. He has freed us to enjoy the Kingdom in and around us. To enjoy the new heart, instead of beating the old one as if we were beating a dead horse into submission.
“how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Hebrews 9:14
Living in freedom means you are trusting the laws that come with walking in the Spirit. The law of the Spirit has set us free from walking in a manner of bondage, thinking sin and death still have a hold in our lives. So as free people, what should be our ways? What things would stand out in someone enjoying the kingdom in and around us?
I believe you would identify a freed person by their abandoning of their own way of life. You would notice their frame, but it would seem as if someone else was living through them. That person would walk about this earth enjoying the kingdom in and around them, not concerning themselves with trying to measure up, but fully embracing the grace of God. It’s as if Christ were living through them. They have fled their old self of preserving good and have aggressively taken hold of the good offered to them in Christ Jesus. They walk around by faith. They trust God is pleased by their attempts to fully accept that faith alone is the incense that rises and is pleasing to Him.
I picture this person as happy. One who doesn’t remember his or her own record of wrongs. They are people who walk around declaring the “No Condemnation” promises over their life. They smile often, knowing they are loved by God. They aren’t concerned with trying something new to overcome because they believe they have already overcome. This person spends more time at the feet of Jesus than in the confession booth. After all, since they are continually choosing the better portion, there is no time for tripping over sin. This person loves communion with the Almighty. Their faith is stirred by seeing God’s beauty around them, hearing God’s language from those close to them, and conversing with the Spirit in them as He brings to remembrance everything Christ said. This way of life is the abundant one Jesus talked about. This is mine in Christ. This is my part in all of this. To live freely.
Wonderful description of walking in the exchange life.
This is incredible.