Jesus Gave His Beauty For My Ashes

 

When I only see the battle—the mountain—and the ashes of my life, then all I see is the cross. But when I see what you see, Lord—when I see my life from your perspective, I see your victory. I see the mountain moved. I see the powerful beauty of your Grace because I see what you see—an empty tomb. 

 

When I only see the cross, I miss the Resurrection power of the empty tomb; the same battle is waged again and again; the mountain is always in front of me, and my life remains in ashes. But when I allow your truth to challenge my understanding—when I dare to gain your perspective, then I believe the victory has already been won on the cross; the battle is yours, and it’s nothing. In my spirit, I’m not the old person I once was. My ashes are no more. I rise to live your new life.

 

Convince me who I am in you, Jesus. Show me, Holy Spirit, how to gain your perspective. My perspective is all flesh. Your perspective is all spirit and life. Keep revealing to me the new person you have made me. I desire only to see and hear with your understanding—to know myself as you know me.

 

There had to be a cross for me to know the Resurrection power of the empty tomb. Lord, when I fail to see myself as your finished work, I miss the miracle of the empty tomb. I remain defeated and powerless to stand strong against the enemy in the battles of life. When I allow you to reveal to me the new creation you have made me, I receive understanding of your finished work on the cross. I know it was perfect. It becomes my identity. There is nothing else I have to do but to receive by faith your finished work of salvation—full of joy and peace and health.

 

You have given me beauty for ashes! I don’t have to live as if the cross never took place! I have nothing to prove. When I see that the war and all its battles have already been won—that everything is finished—done, I rest in the peace and the power of the empty tomb. I have nothing to prove. I just receive by faith what you have given me. 

 

“I do not cease to give thanks for you,” Paul writes, “making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:16-21, NKJV).

 

Only you reveal truth, Holy Spirit! Thank you for continually imparting a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of your Word! Reveal yourself to all who are hungry enough to seek and seek and seek again. When we seek, we find the revelation of your amazing Grace. The cross is done. We live in the power of your resurrection life. No more death. No more fear. No more sickness. No more crying. No more pain.

 

You have bestowed on us a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.
We shall be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord
    for the display of his splendor (Isaiah 61:3).

Jesus gave me His beauty for my ashes. May I rise in His victory from ashes to new life! 

Walking In The Truth Of Who You Are In Christ

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

—Galatians 5:25 (NKJV)

 

 

Many Christians have a great need to prove to themselves that they are worthy of God’s love. Before we knew Christ, we weren’t good enough. But God saw us worthy of His love. He saw us redeemable (John 3:16). He knew who we could be in Christ before we ever were His. When we called upon Jesus to be saved, we gave Him our life, and He gave us His worth. He gave us His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). We are worthy of God’s love because Jesus made us worthy.

 

You are born again and made new by the Spirit of the living God. Living in the Spirit refers to the new birth that takes place in our spirit when we believe by faith in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). But that doesn’t mean that we automatically walk in the truth of the new person we have become. Walking in the Spirit refers to how a believer needs to conduct his life. So Paul is saying in Galatians 5:25 if we are new in Christ and live in the Spirit, we should also walk in the Spirit.

 

Living in the Spirit is the new person we are in Christ, and it is an unchanging position. Walking in the Spirit is the result of knowing who we are in Christ, and it is conditional upon our minds being renewed and also upon our openness to the leading of the Holy Spirit. To know the new person that Christ has made us we need to be renewed in our minds by His truth (Romans 12:2). Then we will know and experience what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:3). 

 

Nothing that we do earns us acceptance by God. It is only by His mercy that we find ourselves holy and acceptable to Him (Romans 12:1). We have been reborn by His Grace and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13). Because of God’s great love, there is no condemnation for us who are reborn in Christ.

 

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:1,5, NKJV).

 

When we allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the new person that we are in Christ, we learn the truths and promises of who we are in Him. When we believe those truths and promises, our perception changes from that of our flesh to that of His Spirit. And when we set our minds on the things of the Spirit, we walk according to the Spirit.  

 

God has made us new (2 Corinthians 5:17). We don’t always feel new. God says we are His (Isaiah 43:1). We don’t always feel that assurance. God says we are blameless, holy, and acceptable to Him (Ephesians 1:4). Our flesh tells us differently. It isn't only the enemy who condemns and tells us we are not worthy of God love. When our heart isn’t assured of its righteous position in Christ, we condemn ourselves instead of receiving the truths of the Holy Spirit (1 John 3:19-20). We can’t go by our feelings. The Spirit provides the truth of what can’t be seen. And the flesh will come against God’s truth every time. Even when we do not physically see or experience the truth of who we are in Christ, we can walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace,” Paul wrote (Romans 8:6, NKJV).

 

Walking in the Spirit (in the truth of who you are in Christ) is your choice. The things of the flesh (being ruled by our emotions instead of God’s truths) are death. The things of the Spirit (which come from a mind that has been renewed by the Spirit) are life and peace.

 

The Holy Spirit is always trying to reveal to us who we are in Christ. A perfect Savior has given us His righteousness. You are worthy because He made you worthy. Are you tired of living at the mercy of your feelings instead of living in the fullness of your identity in Christ? 

Draw a line in the sand, and determine that your flesh will not determine your feelings. Continually be renewed by God’s Word, and put on the truth of who you are in Christ (Ephesians 4:23-24). Take His truth as your own until you believe deep within what it says about you. 

 

Jesus became sin for us! Sin isn’t our master! Our feelings aren’t our master! Our symptons aren't our master. Our circumstances aren't our master! Jesus is our Master! Where sin, feelings, and flesh abound, His grace abounds more (Romans 5:20)! What a miracle of redeeming love! You walk in the Spirit by faith and not by sight.

Pursue

“Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22, KJV) 

Are you aware that the enemy is trying to condemn who you are in Christ and to get you not to obey Him? Do you want to truly stand against his deception and follow Christ? Then “pursue” righteousness, faith, love and peace. Chase these. Go after these four things with determination and perseverance to serve Christ out of a pure heart.

1. Pursue righteousness. This your new identity in Christ. It is living in freedom from guilt, condemnation, and fear. If you want to truly follow Jesus, you have to stand against any oppression that buries you in feelings of unworthiness. Don’t allow the enemy to condemn what you have received in Christ. No weapon purposed against you will stand when you condemn it with the righteousness Christ has given you. Conviction is not condemnation. Conviction is received by the believer who knows they are righteous in Christ. True repentance follows. Condemnation’s purpose is to keep you so buried in your inadequacies and sins, you will never truly repent. It speaks death to your obedience. Pursue the revelation of who you are in Christ so you will hear Him, know His leading, and respond to Him.

2. Follow your faith. You cannot follow what you don’t know. If you don’t know what the Word says, how will you when something exalts itself against it? You must study the Word until it speaks back to you louder than anything else in your life. The Word sparks your faith, and faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Has something sparked your faith? Whatever has ignited it, stems from God speaking to you, revealing Himself to you, prompting you, or offering you a vision of the future. Wherever God guides, He always provides. When we are pursuing our faith, we are following God and walking in His provision for our lives. 

3. Pursue love. Love aims to bless, serve, and give to others. God is love, and He desires to express Himself through you. Offense will come against your identity in Christ, but you must refuse it. You cannot hold on to feelings of unforgiveness, bitterness, rejection, and inadequacy. These will only harden your heart. A heart that is hardened cannot hear God or be led by Him. A heart that is “unoffendable,” pliable and open to the Lord, yields without hesitation to His guidance. This heart loves freely as it has been loved by Him.

4. Follow peace. Protect your hope and your vision from anything or anyone that would try to steal your peace or sow fear into your life. Don’t be consumed by thoughts that come against any vision or purpose God has ignited in you. Instead, be consumed with a sanctified imagination. Trust that God will sustain you in complete peace when your thoughts remain directed toward Him. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your heart.

The Kingdom of God is living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. As members of one body we are called to live in peace. So let’s pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. We will be encouraged, as others will, to remain aligned with God’s purpose. The grace of Jesus Christ, in all its richness, will fill our lives, overflowing in service to the Savior who has given us new life.

Is The Holy Spirit Pricking You?

Jesus asked Saul on the road to Damascus why he persecuted Him (Acts 9:4).

 

You don’t have to be an unbeliever like Saul was for Jesus to ask you this question. 

 

Jesus also told Saul not to kick against the pricks in Acts 9:5 in the KJV and NKJV translations. This statement to Saul is not included in most other translations. 

 

The Holy Spirit knows our human nature. We are tempted to kick against the pricks of the Holy Spirit, guiding us toward what is best for our lives. Our natural mind kicks against His revelation of truth because the natural mind can’t understand it. 

 

The truth of God’s Word comes against what is not true. It reveals any untruth that is real within us. What we believe becomes who we are (Proverbs 23:7). If we believe anything that comes against the truth the Holy Spirit wishes to reveal to us, then the thing we believe is a lie on which we have based our lives. We can’t rationalize God’s truth with our natural minds. The only way we can understand God’s truth is with the spiritual mind that is ours in Christ (1 Corinthians 2:14–16).

 

Is the Holy Spirit pricking you about something you believe? Is He trying to reveal something new to you through God’s Word? Does this something challenge what you believe?  Will you pray about it? Will you test it with other Scripture? Will you be open to the Holy Spirit and not rush Him by needing an immediate answer? If what you believe is a lie, you want it out of your life. You can’t judge His Word with your natural mind. You can only understand it spiritually.

It is only when we allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the truth of God’s Word that we can know if what we believe is based on tradition or on His truth. If what we have believed is God’s truth, it will withstand the test. If what we have believed is not His truth, we need to realize that any change doesn’t happen quickly. Renewing our minds with God’s truth until we believe it in our hearts is a process. To be conformed to His image, we must intentionally, persistently, and continually seek His truth (Romans 12:1–2).

 

God can handle your questioning. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is pricking something you believe. God's truth will always prevail. But it will only prevail in your life when you allow it to challenge any belief you hold on to that is not His truth. 

 

God’s Word is the final authority, but it makes no difference if we don’t understand it. His truth only becomes our truth when we choose to believe it by faith—when we take possession of it and make it ours.

 

No matter how much head knowledge we may have, it can never be the revelation of God’s truth, taking root in our heart and changing us.

Dare to seek God’s truth. Dare the Word to challenge what you have always believed. Dare to become God’s revelation in His Word. His Word is final, finished, and unchanging. Yet, it is a living Word, breathed into you by the Holy Spirit. Don’t persecute His truth. Allow His truth to prick and challenge you. Allow Jesus to come to life within you.

 

Receiving Truth

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

—1 John 5:12-13 (NKJV)

 

You have to do more than just believe God's truth. You have to receive it. 

Many people hear the message of the Gospel but never receive its truth in their hearts. They “almost believe” in Jesus for salvation. Those who do believe His Word in their hearts receive Jesus as their Savior. They have received His life. 

 

When you believe in the name of the Son of God, you have the assurance that you have received eternal life. You also have the assurance you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God (1 John 5:12-13). What John is saying is that believing in the name of Jesus will not be ineffective for you. Believing is putting your faith in the name of Jesus. Jesus told two blind men seeking healing that they would receive according to what they believed (Matthew 9:29).

 

Why do some Christians, having put their faith in Jesus for salvation, find it hard to put their faith in the Word for what He promises? When they first received Christ as their Savior, they believed in Him by faith and confessed their belief in Him. But when the circumstances of their lives never change, they find it hard to believe what God has promised them in His Word. Yes, they say they believe these truths, but then reduce the power of these truths by asking God if the promise they are praying for is His will. This hinders the power of Holy Spirit to work out God’s Word in your life. “Almost believing” does not receive (James 1:7). 

 

God’s truth is not real for us until we take possession of it. We have to make His truth our truth.

 

Our relationship with Jesus is one that can only be lived through fellowship with Him. We have to respond to what Jesus has done for us. We have to put faith in His Word. The truth of His Word will only be realized when we live by faith and not by sight. We must trust that His truth works out what we do not currently see or experience in our lives. 

 

When you doubt because of not seeing or experiencing God’s truth, you doubt God’s will. You doubt His promises. A person who doubts God’s promises doubts his right standing with God. He may not realize this but he doubts He is worthy enough to receive from the Lord. God deemed you worthy when you believed in His Son’s love for you. 

 

If something is in the Word, it is God’s truth. Just because you might not experience His truth as your reality at this time in your life does not mean that it is not true for you. When you know what the Word says about something, you can pray for a specific outcome knowing that it is God’s will. You can have confidence that when you pray according to His will, you have what you have requested of Him (1 John 5:14-15).

 

Consider God’s truth “by His stripes, you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).  Do we say we believe it but question it in our hearts? God heals others but maybe you question if it is His will for you personally to receive healing. The Word says healing is something that Jesus accomplished for us in His finished work of grace. It is a complete and finished work. We have to do more than just say we believe it. That truth has to be sown in our hearts. It has to be protected from the lies of the enemy. That truth has to renew us in the spirit of our minds until it becomes our identity. It has to become God’s truth in the abundance of our hearts. We receive the truth of our new life in Jesus by putting on our new life (Ephesians 4:23-24). His life becomes ours. His Word becomes ours.

 

Don’t be more concerned about the opinions of men than the praise of God (John 12:42-43).  Don’t allow the things you experience in life keep you from speaking God’s truth as yours. Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and you will receive the fruit of what you speak (Proverbs 18:21). His truth is life to you. Don’t doubt His truth in your heart. Anything you believe that is not God’s truth speaks death to your faith.

 

When you received Jesus, you received His truth. That truth is yours because God gave it to you. If you have the Son, you have His life. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Just as you received Jesus by faith, you also have to receive His truth by faith. Renew your mind intentionally with the Word, seeking God’s truth until it begins to change your mind and heart (Romans 12:2). Speak its promise into your life and circumstances. Stand on the Word of God without wavering, and allow it to do a complete work in your spirit, soul, and body, making you thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). 

What is my promise in the Word?  I have to do more than believe it. I have to receive it.

 

 

May I Be A Gift Of His Grace

“But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

—Matthew 9:13

 

Jesus had just been asked by the Pharisees why he was eating with tax collectors and sinners. He told them that it was because healthy people don’t need a doctor; sick people do. And then Jesus told them to learn the meaning of this Scripture: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” 

 

God’s Word is for us. We also are to show love and mercy. This scripture is initially found in Hosea 6:6. Hosea demonstrated love and mercy toward his wife, Gomer, who was a prostitute. God demonstrates His love for us that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us. The love of God is what Jesus explained to the Pharisees. He did not come to call the righteous, but those who are sinners. The righteous have already received mercy. But the sinner hasn’t. 

Dying for us was not a sacrifice to Jesus. To Him, it was an offering of mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and unconditional love. He never gave Himself for recognition. He gave us unearned and undeserving grace. When someone regards what they do for someone else as a sacrifice, they have revealed that their concern is about themselves. When we seek to show others that we have sacrificed, we seek recognition. And that is pride. Jesus’ gift of His life was never about Him. It was all about us. 

 

Do we have the same attitude as Christ? Do we love and shower grace on believers and unbelievers alike, or do we withhold mercy? 

Mercy says: "I forgive and care for you because Jesus loves you unconditionally." Sacrifice says:”I forgive and care for you because it is required." 

Loving should always be a gift—never a requirement. If keeping the law makes us righteous, then Jesus’ gift of His life was in vain (Galatians 2:21). It is a sacrifice to do something for someone when it is required. It is mercy when it freely flows from unconditional love.

 

“If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,” Paul writes, “but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (I Corinthians 13:3-7, NLT).

 

This is God’s love for us. It is pure grace. It is kind and patient. His love always rejoices with the truth. It always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.

 

“In your relationships with one another,” Paul writes, “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:5-8, NLT).

 

“Show mercy,” Jesus said. “Don’t offer sacrifice.” 

 

Sacrifice places the focus on us, and that is prideful. Mercy is full of humility. It places our focus on Jesus. Humility does not focus on “self” and what it achieves. It surrenders to Christ’s grace on Calvary. It places the well-being of others ahead of its own.

When we understand that humility doesn’t exalt itself and doesn’t have to earn what has already been earned in Christ, we receive more grace to empower our lives.

 

“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (James 4:6).

God gives more grace when we choose to have an attitude toward others like Christ had toward us. 

May I always be a good steward of His manifold grace. May His love just overflow in me. May my gift never be a sacrifice but an offering of His mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and love. Each day may I be a gift of His grace.