HOW REALISTIC IS YOUR JOURNEY WITH GOD?
“Abide in Me, and I in you . . . I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. . .” (John 15:5)
Neither a pauper nor a prince has control over the number of his days. Our life is said to be “. . . a vapor that appears for just a short while, and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14) The days ordained for each one have been recorded in God’s “Book of Life.” (Psalm139:16) So, we are only passing through this earthly life for a time. Our citizenship is in heaven. (Philippians 3:20) We must use the days He has given to us in a profitable manner.
Viewing our life from the vantage point of Calvary, the empty tomb, the ascension of Jesus, and the power of Pentecost, the Apostle Paul declared it an actual participation in spirit for the believer in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Our gracious and loving God has called us to sit in heavenly places. (Ephesians 2:4-6) So, victorious living during our earthly life is the God-given right of the believer. The believer must see himself according to God’s Word, as crucified with Christ, dead, buried, raised up and made to sit in heavenly places with his Lord and Savior. Without this he will go down in defeat despite all his strivings and prayers. But with this reality in operation, he is more than a conqueror through Christ. This must be appropriated by faith to have a realistic walk with God,
We must know that God does not expect us to be like Jesus by our own efforts, for they will go down in defeat. Even the Apostle Paul, had to reach the end of himself (Romans 7) and receive oneness with Christ as his very life. The basis for this daring position is that God has promised to bless us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places through Christ. (Ephesians 1:3) With the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the promise to the believer is: “you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost.” This is not power as a gift from the Holy Ghost; the power IS the Holy Ghost. It is not something He imparts. The life that was in Christ is made ours “that we may be filled with all the fullness of God” to journey with Him.