The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Holy Spirit Becomes the Life of the Believer, #2

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (Revelation 12:11—NIV)

To be a true Christian requires every second of our attention, our whole interest and love. No man can serve two masters. If we give less than our best we cannot be an overcomer.

The Lord Jesus Christ always is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He alone can bring a person to the Father. Jesus of Nazareth is infinitely more than a master teacher who instructs us in a philosophy of living. He Himself Is the Way to God. We must keep on pressing forward in Him and toward Him.

As we move forward in Christ, truth is created in every part of our personality. We are the flesh being created the Word of God. As we are being made the Word of God, resurrection life increasingly is the force that moves us and by which we live. Our experience of eternal life is developing at every moment.

Our fleshly life is dying and indestructible resurrection life is taking its place. After we commence this process we ought never to look back. We are to keep our eyes steadfastly on Christ until we stand perfect and complete in all the will of God (Colossians 4:12).

Accepting Christ as our Savior and Lord includes taking up our cross and following Him (Matthew 16:24,25). Our position from then on is that we have the life of the Holy Spirit in our inner self because of the righteousness of Christ that has been given us as a gift. Our mortal body remains in death because of its sinful tendencies.

Our task is to sow to the Holy Spirit until resurrection life is perfected in us. We must yield ourselves to the Spirit rather than to our flesh. Our fleshly mind continually is conspiring with Satan and the spirit of the present wicked age in the attempt to divert our attention from Christ.

If we allow the resurrection life of Christ to work in us, then, at the coming of the Lord from Heaven, the same resurrection life that already is in us will make alive our physical body. This is the redemption of the body and the point at which our body is adopted as a son of God (Romans 8:23).

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)

We must give our attention to grasping eternal life. Romans, Chapter Eight teaches that if a Christian walks in the appetites of the flesh after having made a profession of Christ he will die spiritually. The Divine Seed will be choked out by the cares of the present world (Luke 8:14).

As Romans 8:11 states, we already possess the life that will redeem our mortal body when the Lord returns. If we choose to live in the desires of the flesh we will lose that indwelling grace. We will defeat our own resurrection. As in the case of the foolish virgins we will not possess enough "oil" to go with the Bridegroom when He appears.

To be continued.