It’s one thing to await being eternally resurrected. It’s another thing to experience resurrection life “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). The LORD lives to make intercession that we experience the grace and fullness of His victory over the forces of sin and death; for therein can the new life in Him by the Spirit be found. It is in this new life of the Spirit that God grows His capacity in us.
RELEVANCE
The LORD wanted us to embrace the fact that He came to earth to live in our like kind, die, be resurrected, and deposit in us the guarantee of His presence in the form of the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit—so we could be in like kind with God—in union with Him.
The greatest degree of spiritual growth, therefore, comes as we engage with God, receive the grace of His light and truth and allow the Holy Spirit to bring real transformation.
Being continuously filled with the Spirit is found by receiving God’s amazing grace and intentionally emptying ourselves of the things which indulge the flesh. God is a jealous God. His Spirit will not compete with our carnal desires. The world will bombard us with such influences, but those seeking to fully identify with the crucified and resurrected life of Christ have the opportunity to resist such influences.
“And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24-26). Yes– walk in the Spirit!
REFLECT AND RELATE
What old thought patterns might you still be carrying with you that need to be crucified?
Write down new truths the Holy Spirit reveals to you and meditate on those things so your mind is continually refreshed and filled with things of the Spirit.
REFERENCES
Galatians 5:16-26; 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:8