Skip to main content

 HOW TO LIVE A NEW LIFE

2 Thessalonians 3:5

“May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.”

In John 15:5 Jesus says that He is the Vine and we are the branches. Thinking with any degree of clear logic, you can see that the sap or “life” in the branch is coming from the singular Source of the Vine. That is why the “fruit” produced in the believer is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the character and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself. We are destined to be conformed to the Image of Christ Jesus by the will of God. It’s not by human strength or initiative, but by the grace and power of God that is utterly trustworthy and eternally true.

So, if you belong to Jesus Christ and are one of His followers, the Life being lived in you, the Life flowing in you is simply and none other than His Life within you. The Holy Spirit has united you to Jesus’ death where your sin, not in part but the whole, has been atoned for and removed from you by God’s grace as far as the East is from the West. The Holy Spirit has also united you to the Resurrection of Jesus delivering you out of the kingdom of darkness and translating you into the Kingdom of God.

The Word of God is crystal clear that if anyone is IN Christ Jesus, they are a new creation. Old things have passed away, and, behold, all things have become new. And this is all from God who reconciled you to Himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That new life working in you is not something you know how to live innately by any stretch of the imagination. In John 15:5 Jesus goes onto to say, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” Life in the Kingdom of God is either lived by the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit uniting the believer to the Life of God, or its not lived at all.

This new Life is the greatest adventure any human being can begin to live into. It is the transformation and restoration of a person out of death and into Life, out of darkness and into Light. God has united the believer to Himself, made that follower a join-heir with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not able to lead ourselves into what God has prepared for us to live, to walk in. St. Paul prays for the young Greek Church in Thessaloniki that the Lord would lead them into a full understanding and expression of the Love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ. God’s will for us unfolds as we follow Him in faith and surrender. Patience, we need!

Insight from God’s Word is never given simply for the cataloging of spiritual information. It is given for living in complete dependance upon the One Who has given us His Word. St. Paul states that no matter how many promises God has given they ALL find their “YES!” in Christ Jesus, so that we can say, “AMEN!” to the glory of God as it is He Who works His salvation in us from start to finish.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

  OUT IN THE OPEN God has not hidden what He has done to redeem humanity. He offers us the only way of true repentance, faith, forgiveness of sin and a new life that is unending. Truth is, though, He never forces repentance, faith, forgiveness and a new life on anyone. He desires a relationship, not the programmed responses of humanoid AI. His love for us has exposed the utter ruin of humanity because of our rebellion and sin. He doesn’t want us to be deceived into thinking that at the end of our lives here on earth we will all get a “participation trophy”. We have all personalized and internalized our rebellion against God. Humanity’s rebellion against God can be shocking horror or the civilized folly or relying on our broken moral compass to bring ourselves back into a state of wholeness. We want to be the ground of truth. We want our emotions enshrined and worshipped by all. The root problem is that humanity is spiritually dead and separated from Life, Himself. Both pride and ho...
Post a Comment
Read more
  PSALM 119:132 “Turn to me and have mercy on me, as You always do to those who love Your Name.” Here is the cry of an understanding heart. The Psalmist is acknowledging that life in all its fullness, the life God intends for us to live out here on earth is only found by God’s pursuit of us, His turning to us that we might turn to Him. The Psalmist knows that “Salvation is of the Lord.” He cries out for the Lord’s mercy to cover Him. He acknowledges that those who know the Lord, those who are known by Him and who love His Name, always find God’s mercy and grace to live out the life that God commands. God provides the wherewithal to do what He has commanded. He gives us the indwelling Power and Person of the Holy Spirit to BE Life within us. It is the Holy Spirit who conforms us to the Image of Christ Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who perfects in us the obedience of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who makes God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He enables us to cooperate w...
Post a Comment
Read more
 UNDERSTANDING GOD'S MERCY Matthew 13:58 “ And so He did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.” I have heard it said that somehow the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through the Lord Jesus Christ was somehow limited by the unbelief of the folks in His hometown of Nazareth. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Nothing limits the power of God nor His grace give to sinners to redeem, heal, and restore them to God. What we see is the mercy of God towards broken people. He will not reinforce unbelief. If someone refuses to believe who Jesus Christ is and what He has done, the Lord in His mercy will not reinforce that unbelief by manifesting His healing and delivering power upon the one who does not believe. Otherwise, we broken humans might come to think that we can get from God what we want because we want it, not because we have surrendered our lives to Him in faith. Christianity is not refined paganism where we get God to do what we want because we h...
Post a Comment
Read more