VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIVING
This page is designed primarily for Christians on how they can discover some exciting principles that will enable them to live triumphantly in their lives.
Visit often to see some victorious life principles that will radically change your Christian life forever.
Each teaching builds upon one another. Each meassage is a full length
manuscript with many references for you to do further reading for
real victory. If you are serious about winning the battle for victorious Christian living I recommend that you read on with anticipa
tion of what the Lord is going to reveal to you. Victory is yours if you are a serious-minded Christian! GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU READ ON TO ENJOY WHAT IS YOURS ALREADY IN CHRIST.
Table of Contents of Victory Messages
THE WAY OF DEATH
THE WAY OF LIFE
THE WAY OF APPROPRIATING FAITH
IN IT TO WIN IT
This new sermon series was added in October 10,1999.
LINKS TO OTHER POWERFUL
CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES
The victorious Christian life has been called by many different names. Over the years it have called the "deeper life" or the "exchanged life" or the "higher life." Still others called it the "abiding life." I like what Ron Dunn says about the victorious Christian life in his book entitled simply,VICTORY. Dunn says,
"A victorious life is not a superior brand of Christianity reserved
for the elite of the elect. It is the normal life for every Christian.
It isn't bestowed upon some because they are spiritual: it is given to
all because they are saved! Too many Christians are struggling to win
a victory that has already been won. It was won 2000 years ago."This teaching is designed to show us how we can enter into the victory of Calvary.
First of all,the way of victorious Christian living is bascially threefold:
- The Way Of Death
-
The Way Of Life
- The Way Of Appropriating Faith
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The way of death deals with the believers' identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. Understanding how to apply the
cross to our old man or sin nature will give us the means of victorious Christian living. The devotional writer James H. McConkey
tells the story of a man lost in a dark dense forest. The darkness was so intense he could not with all his effort locate his position. Straining to see through the thick gloom, he spotted the top of a telephone pole outlined against the first faint flush of the coming dawn. He saw only a few feet of the pole. With its cross arm at right angles to the body of the pole, it looked like a giant cross
against the early morning sky. The cross became his guide out of the darkness. He knew that where that telephone pole stood was the highway he sought. He slowly picked his way toward the silhouette of the cross in the sky and found his way out of the dark forest. It was
the cross that lead him out of darkness to light. And it is our identification with the cross of Jesus Christ that will lead us out of the bondage of sin and into the light and life of Jesus Christ in daily living.
A.THE AXIOM
The first axiom on our way to victorious Christian living is:
THE OLD "I" IN YOU AND ME WAS JUDICIALLY CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST. WE
DIED AND OUR DEATH DATES FROM THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
An axiom by definition is an "established principle or statement(usually found in logic or mathmatics) that needs no proof." It is simply an accepted truth, a fact. In algebra we learned some simple
axioms like:"Equals added to equals(or subtracted) are equal." Whether
or not I believe it, or can prove it or understand it,the axiom is always true. The same goes for the axiom stated above- found some nine times in eleven verses in Romans the sixth chapter.
Here are a few of those verses where the axiom of our death with Christ is stated:
Romans 6:2"How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer in it?"
Romans 6:3"Know ye not that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus
Christ were baptized into his death."
Romans 6:4"...we were buried with him."
Romans 6:6"our old man is crucified with him..."
Romans 6:7"For he that is dead is freed from sin."
Romans 6:11"Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin..."
B.THE AFFIRMATION
Over the centuries there have been many Christian leaders who have affirmed the axiom of our identification with Christ as to our death
with Christ to sin and the dominion of sin's rule in our lives.
1.JAMES H. MCCONKEY
"The word reckon is an accountant's term. It means to "count upon." Count yourself dead to sin through your Lord Jesus Christ. "Credit that to my account," you say to your banker. Credit the Lord Jesus Christ's death to your account....Begin to count yourself dead to sin
through our Lord Jesus Christ's death. To reckon yourself DEAD to sin
does not mean that sin is DEAD in you. Reckon does not mean the BANISHED PRESENCE of sin, but the BROKEN DOMINION of sin." Our reckoning it to be true does not make it a fact. It is already a fact
through our union with Him...As we count upon it we begin to realize it. AS WE RECKON WE BEGIN TO REALIZE."
2. J. HUDSON TAYLOR
"Whereas once I was blind, now I see...I am dead and buried with Christ-aye and risen too and ascended...God reckons me so, and tells
me to reckon me so. He knows best...Oh, the joy of seeing this truth...The sweetest part is the rest that full identification with Christ brings...As to work, mine has never so plentiful, so responsible, or so difficult; but the weight and strain are all gone...But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith,
but by resting on the Faithful One..." Taylor discovered that dwelling in Christ he partook of His very being and resources. And He
did this by an act of faith. Taylor called it "the exchanged life."
3. ANDREW MURRAY
"Like Christ, the believer too has died to sin: he is one with Christ,
in the likeness of His death. And as the knowledge that Christ died for sin as an atonement is indispensable to our justification: so the
knowledge that Christ and we with Him in the likeness of His death, are dead to sin, is indispensable to our santification."
4. EVAN H. HOPKINS
"To know God's way of deliverance from sin as a master he must apprehend the truth contained in the sixth chapter of Romans..."Knowing this, that our old man was crucufied with Him."(Rom.6:6) The believer there sees not only that Christ died for
him-substitution, but that he died with Christ-identification."
5. MAJOR IAN THOMAS
"I must recognize that the enemy within the camp-the flesh, the old
nature, self, I, the old Adam-is a usurper. By faith I must reckon him to be in the place that God put him-crucified with Christ. I must realize that now my life is hid with Christ in God: that He is my life."
6. WATCHMAN NEE
"Our old nature ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection. The cross terminates the first creation and out of death there is brought a new creation in Christ...That Christ has died is a fact...and that you have died is a fact also. Let me tell you, you have died. You are done with. You are ruled out. The self you loathe is on the cross. And "he that is dead is freed from sin."(Rom.6:7A.V.) This is the gospel for the Christian. Our crucifixion can never be made effective by will or by effort, but only by accepting what the Lord Jesus did on the cross...The finished work of Christ has gone to the root of our problem and dealt with it...He has made full provision for sin's rule to be utterly broken. "Knowing this that our old man was crucufied with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that we should no longer be in bondage to sin."(Rom.6:6)"
7. NORMAN GRUBB
"He not only died for sin, as a sacrifice for sin, but He died to sin, in the sense that it has no more claims on him, no further word to say to Him. So we also take the place that with Him we have died to sin and its claim to dominion over us. We regard the flesh as crucified with Him, and therefore have the ability to walk free from following it's affections and lusts.(Gal.5:24) Our death with Christ is mentioned nine times in the first eleven verses of Romans six. The tense in Romans six is aorist tense most of the way. The aorst tense means a past and finished fact...Have you now believed what God has said of you as a believer?..."our old man was crucified with Him."...Reckon, because it is a historic and actual fact. Believe the fact...Oh, I do not feel dead. Does that make it not true that the believer is dead with Christ? Are you going to have faith first, or feeling?...It is faith first, then feeling. It is fact to faith. I go to the fact, I have died with Him, and the consequence of that is, I am alive with Him."
8. JACK TAYLOR
"Death is the only deliverance from the self-life...The cross is God's answer to the problem of self. On that cross Christ died. But something else happened there. We died with Him! As we reckoned on His Death, our sin problem was cared for. As we reckon constantly on our death with Him, our self problem will be cared for. We can then reckon all of His life in us."
C.THE ANALOGY
There are several analogies, both from the scriptures and the secular
world, that we can give to help us understand the truth of our death
with Christ to the principle and rule of sin in our lives. It is hoped
that these analogies will help you understand this great principle of victory. But beyond the analogies, one must ask the Lord for revelation of this axiom in his or her own Christian life. The Lord Jesus Christ will show you that not only can you not save yourself, neither can you live the Christian life. We must see that Christ is our life, and to reckon by faith our old man as totally bankrupt,
powerless as to living victorious over sin's rule. Here are a few
analogies to help us see and understand the principle of our co-crucifixion with Christ:
1. A MILITARY DISCHARGE
Let's say that on Feb. 23, 1953 a soldier name Pvt.Dawes is discharged
from the army. The time of his military discharge is 12 noon. At 12:08 his master sergeant(Master Sergeant Jack "Hardnose" Jones) sees
Pvt. Dawes and shouts out a command to him. "Hey, Dawes, you need to go clean the latrine; mop the canteen area; and pick up all cigarette
butts on our parameter." Former Pvt.Dawes holding up his military discharge papers shouts back, "Forget it Sarge, I've got my papers. You no longer have any jurisdiction over me. I'm a free man. I'm going home to enjoy civilian life." Any military man knows that feeling of being free, discharged from service, from the demands of military life. In a similar way, Jesus death and our death with Him, set us free from the ruthless master, the Devil. We no longer have to listen to his shouts and demands. We are free from his reign and jurisdiction.
2. A DEAD HUSBAND
In Romans 7:2-3, we have a biblical illustration of this axiom of our death with Christ. The biblical analogy says that "if the husband is
dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband."(Romans 7:2b) Let say that this particular husband is an abusive and cruel mate. He makes unrealistic demands on his wife. He physically and mentally and
emotionally is abusive towards his wife. He has very strict control
over her and demands her complete obedience to his harsh lifestyle. Then he dies. Now she is free and does not have to continue to follow his brutal demands. She no longer has to believe the lies and cruel remarks he made about her or follow his destructive patterns. So,in our identification with Jesus, we are free from the
old taskmaster, the law((Romans 8:2) and from the control of Satan and the old man. We have died to all of their control and demands.
D. THE APPLICATION
You may be reading all these great leaders and their explanations of this great truth of our identification with Christ in His death and His resurrection and wondering how can I apply this to my life. I am
still controlled by weaknesses of the flesh. Sin still rules my life.
How do I apply this truth to get victory? The way to apply this truth
to sin ruling in our own lives is by appropriation. According to Webster's dictionary appropriation means "to take as our own." To
understand the truth our death with Christ is not enough, we must learn to make a daily decision of saying "NO" to self as the source of our Christian living. It is bankrupt and powerless to live pleasing to God. By an act of our will, we chose to reckon ourselves dead to sin and self and satan and the world. When we honestly apply the cross to the rule of the old man or satan or the world, there can be victory. The children of Israel were told to go into the promised land. It is yours, but you must go into it and place your feet in it and claim it and drive out the enemy. Those who believed, recieved the promise.Those who doubted, did without. Once we see what is ours in Christ, our practical needs cause us to appropriate, to recieve the answer to that need. The need is a signal, not of defeat, but that our source of victory is found in Another-Jesus Christ our Life. As we appropriate our death to sin's reign and our new life in Him, there can be real vicory in daily living. This is the victorious life that all believers have available to them and that they take by faith.
Watchman Nee says in his book entitled, THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE,
"I really know I am already crucufied, then I spontaneously reckon myself dead, and when I trully reckon myself one with the Lord in death and resurrection, it follows that I will present myself to Him. He is the source of my life-He is my life-so I cannot but yeild everything to Him, for all is His, not mine...Deliverance from the
law does not mean that we are free from doing the will of God, but that from henceforth Another does it in us and through us...It is because of our trying that we fail and fail and fail...We need to come to the place where we say, "Lord, I am going to do nothing for
Thee, either in the matter of my salvation, or of my santification; but I trust Thee to do everything in me."
TESTIMONIES:
1. MAJOR IAN THOMAS
"You have been busy trying to do for Me all that only I can do through you. Now supposing I am your life, and you begin to accept it
as a fact, then I am your strength! You have been pleading and begging for that for seven years. I am your victory in every area of
your life, if you want it! I am the One to whom it is perfectly natural to go out and win souls; and I know precisely where to go to
find them. Why don't you begin to reckon upon Me and say "Thank You."
2. JACK TAYLOR
"At twenty-nine years of age with everything my system had taught me to have ambition for, and I was MISERABLE!...I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. My misery began to worsen. I prayed more and
worked harder...Frantically evading self-discovery, I sought more
success in BUILDINGS,BUDGETS AND BAPTISMS, too often our"holy trinity"
for success...Doubts, depression, and discouragement and dispair were
my constant companions...I was at wit's end corner...Then I came across it! "CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY."(Col.1:27)...I saw it; I
felt it; and I knew it! He has been there all the time, watching, longing, and waiting to be my life. I was too busy trying to be like
Him, trying to serve Him, and trying to promote Him...Now I knew that Jesus,Himself, came to live His life in me...I lived in the next months in gleeful delight of a new discovery...Jesus became somebody real that walked out of the Bible pages, and fellowshiped with me. I fell in love anew with this Wonderful Somebody named Jesus...It was Jesus, only, that you need to live the life I require and you desire."
"ALL OF GOD WAS IN CHRIST...
ALL OF CHRIST WAS IN ME...
ALL I NEEDED WAS CHRIST HIMSELF...
AND I HAD HIM LIVING INSIDE ME!
DON'T BE STUBBORN-KEEP GOING.READ YOUR WAY TO VICTORY AND GO TILL YOU SEE LINKS TO IMPORTANT MINISTRIES AT END OF THE WEB PAGE
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INTRODUCTION
1. This message is the second in a series of messages about the way of victory. How do I live a victorious Christian life? We saw in the first step that we must take the way of death to the old man, the old
Adamic nature, the sin nature that all of us inherited. By our union with Jesus Christ, when we became born-again, we died to reign of sin and death. Sin is no longer is our master, and we need to learn to reckon, to count upon our freedom from sin's enslavement. As we begain to realize and then reckon, we will experience this first step of victory.
2. The second step is the way of life. Jesus came not only to save us, but to be our life. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life..."(John 14:6) Not only are we to reckon ourselves dead with Christ to reign of sin, but we were raised with Him. We have resurrected life, which is Jesus Christ living in us. Oh, the excitement to realize as Jack Taylor and others said, "that we have
Another living inside of us" to live the Christian life through us.
So in this section we will to look to Jesus Christ as our life and learn to draw from Him all the resources we need to live the victorious Christian life.
3. There have been numerous books that deal with this second step of
"Christ-our life." That list includes books like the following:
(a)THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE By Watchman Nee
(b)THE LIFE THAT WINS By Charles Trumbull
(C)VICTORY IN CHRIST By Charles Trumbull
(d)THE WAY OF VICTORY By James H. McConkey
(e)THE THREEFOLD SECRET OF THE HOLY SPIRIT By James H. McConkey
(f)THEY FOUND THE SECRET By V. Raymond Edman
(g)HIMSELF By A. B. Simpson
(h)THE LIBERATING SECRET By Norman Grubb
(i)THE SPONTANEOUS YOU By Norman Grubb
(j)ABIDING IN CHRIST By James E. Rosscup
(k)RIVERS OF LIVING WATERS By Ruth Paxson
(l)LIVING THE CHRIST-FILLED LIFE By John E. Hunter
(m)ABIDE IN CHRIST By Andrew Murray
(n)THE COMPLETE GREEN LETTERS By Miles Stanford
(o)THE SAVING LIFE OF CHRIST By Major Ian Thomas
(p)VICTORY By Ron Dunn
(q)THE KEY TO TRIUMPHANT LIVING By Jack Taylor
4. The reason I out Jack Taylor's book,THE KEY TO TRIUMPHANT LVING,
last was because it contains one of the best outlines on the principle of the Christ-life found in Galatians 2:20.I am using part of that outline in the following points that reveal to us the secret
of victorious Christian living.
A.THE DILEMMA
The lost person has to come to the revelation that he cannot save
himself and thus he turns and trusts Jesus Christ as his personal saviour. The saved person must come to the revelation that he or she
cannot live the Christian life. He must come to the "end of his rope"
of trying to live the Christian life in his own power. He must come as
Jack Taylor states where he came to-"wit's end corner."
"Are you standing at "Wit's End Corner?
Then you are just in the very spot
To learn the wonderous resources
Of Him who faileth not.
1.AN ILLUSTRATION
Ron Dunn in his book,VICTORY, told of one Christmas in his household where they could hardly wait for their kids to wake up and open their presents. They had bought the kids games that lid up and buzzed, tanks that fired missiles, and cars that raced around winding
tracks. On Christmas morning as the kids opened their presents, Dunn
said he noticed for the first time the tag on the boxes-"BATTERIES NOT
INCLUDED." Dunn heard his kids say, "Daddy, it won't work." In a similar way in our churches, we see everthing but power to live the
Christian life.
2.A QUOTE By Jack Taylor
"The saddest observation of our whole system is that there seems to be everything evident but power. There are elegant edifices, educational excellence,efficiency,and enthusiasm. These are all too
obvious. But power is obviously absent in most of our religious ex-
pressions. The reality of Spirit power is the greatest need of our day."
3.A CONFESSION By The Apostle Paul
Paul said that even his best efforts ended up in failure. He testified that when he tried "to do good, evil is present with me."
(Rom.7:21) He had a desire to please God, but "how to perform I find
not."(Romans 7:18) Paul finally cried out in dispair and said of himself "Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?"(Romans 7:24) Whether the old man or the new man in Christ, Paul realized that he alone could not live the Christian life.
4.A PERSONAL CRISIS
We are told we are to walk and talk like Jesus. Our youth wear bracelets and necklaces that have the initials-WWJD that stands for
"What Would Jesus Do." But we don't have the power to live and love like Jesus. We are commanded to love our enemies; to turn the other
cheek; to go the second mile; to avoid even the appearance of evil.
But the question is the same as Paul's-"HOW?"
I came to this personal crisis of "how to live the Christian life" in my second year at seminary. I was working on the docks of a trucking
company. All of us were a part of the Teamsters Union, which was one
of the roughest in the nation. We had ex-cons working on the docks
with us. One on these ex-cons begain to harass just about everyone on that shift. I got angry at him and said a few unkind things to him. Inwardly, I would have loved to see him fired. I had absolutely
no love for this man. I knew that God wanted me to love everyone, even my enemies, but I had zero love for this man. He was like a pest,
a nuisance. Realizing I had no ability in myself to love this person,
I told God if He wanted him loved, He(God) would have to love this man
through me. I saw I couldn't, but He could through me. After that prayer, God gave me His love for that man. I was able through "Christ
loving through me" to apologize to this man, and to show love and kindness towards him. Just a few hours before, that love was not there. But when I let Christ love through me, there was the presence
and power of Christ to love this one who was unlovely in man's eyes.
B.THE DECLARATION
The great declaration for the believer's victory is found in:
Gal.2:20"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but CHRIST LIVETH IN ME..."
Paul declared in this key verse he
had a new source of living the Christian life It was Jesus Christ living in him and through him.
1.THE FACT OF HIS LIFE IN US
Time and again in the word of God we find the fact of the Christ-filled life. We see that Jesus is our new source for living the Christian life. He, Jesus, is the fountainhead from which flows all
power for living. The fact of "Christ living in us" is seen in the following verses:
(1)John 14:16-17- In these verses Jesus told his disciples that He was
going to send them another helper or comforter. There are two words in the Greek for "another." One means another of a different kind, and the other means another of the same kind. Jesus was saying I am going to send you a person to live in you who is just like me. He says
to them.."And I will pray the Father, and He will give you ANOTHER comforter, that he may abide with you forever...for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you."(John 14:16-17)
(2)Ephesians 3:16-"That he would grant you, according to the riches of
his glory to be strenghened with might by His Spirit in the inner man."
(3)Ephesians 3:17-"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith."
(4)Ephesians 3:20-"Now unto Him who able to do exceedingly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us."
(5)Colossians 1:29-"whereunto I also labor, striving according to his
working which worketh in me mightily."
(6)Colossians 3:11-"But Christ is all and in all."
(7)II Corinthians 13:5-"know ye not yourselves, how that Jesus Christ
is in you, except you be reprobates."
(8)John 15:4-5-"Abide in Me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself...I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth
in me, and I in him bringeth forth much fruit."
(9)I John 4:4-"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome the them; because greater is HE in you, than he that is in the world."
(10) Amplification of this Fact:
Miles Stanford teaches us in his excellent book, THE COMLETE GREEN LETTERS that; "The primary ministry of the Holy Spirit is to reveal to us the Lord Jesus as our new life, and to occupy our minds and hearts with Him...we should be be seeing more clearly the Wonderful
truths concerning the fact that the Lord of Glory is our life...There
is but one place, one position where we are to abide and that is in Him and where He is...The resources and motivations for our daily living are in the Son."
James H. McConkey says in his book, THE THREEFOLD SECRET OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT that "we are to have a faith that draws upon Christ as the source of our life. He says we as believers must come to trust Christ
in the following ways:
1.TRUST HIM AS INDWELLING.
"Never doubt the indwelling of the Spirit because you do not feel His
presence...McConkey asked an old colored saint how he became conscious presence of Christ? He replied,"Jess you believe He's there, and He is there."
Ill. Brother Lawrence said for us "to practice the presence of God,and
you shall soon experience it."
2.TRUST HIM TO MANIFEST HIMSELF TO US.
Never dictate to Him the kind of feeling or experience you desire...leave that to Him. You just trust Him to manifest Himself to
you and through you. That is our part, and God will do His part.
3.TRUST THE SPIRIT TO WORK IN US.
Phil.2:13 says, "it is God that worketh in you both to will and do of His good pleasure." "He knows when you need chastening or rebuke..He knows when to comfort with His joy. He knows just how to mold and fashion, to chisel and cut, to pound and hammer, to straiten and strenghen to make us into His Image."
4.TRUST HIM TO WORK THROUGH US.
He says it is one thing to work for God, it is quite another for God
to work through us. As you go forth through your daily routine you must trust that God is present with you and that He is by faith(NOT FEELING)working through your life. Whether or not you are in ministry does not matter, believe that God is all things and that He is working in your life to bring forth fruit for eternity. TRUST HIM TO DO SO. Sit back and relax in your labor, and watch the Lord work. Do what Brother Lawrence said:Practive the presence and you will experience His presence.
2.THE FORCE OF HIS LIFE IN US
As we begin to declare the fact like Paul that Christ liveth in us,
them we will experience the power, the force of His life flowing through our lives.
QUOTES:
(1)Norman Grubb-THE SPONTANEOUS YOU
"I was passing through what some have called the "dark night of the soul" or the "wilderness experince"...with much more self-consciousness than God-consciousness, more of self-concern than concern for those for whom I had come to in the Congo...I had the
illusion that I needed to be a better representative of Jesus
Christ...I was looking for personal improvement...but what I saw was
that the only self-giving love in the universe is person,not a thing.
This love is not something He would share with me, but that it is Himself, and He can't take parts of Himself and share with me...I found that He is(not has)the power, He is(not has) the life...I saw that we humans do not exist to become something, but to CONTAIN
someone."
(2)John E. Rosscup-ABIDING IN CHRIST
Rosscup says that "abiding in Christ" is recieving by faith the quality essence of Christ's life for your life...One word summarizes
the abiding, fruit-bearing life. It is faith. Someone has said."Great Saints are grea recievers." It is recieving that which the Vine supplies...Obviously the branch is able to bear fruit only
when it is in contact with the Vine...The branch must not vest dependence in itself, but in the Vine alone. It lives by relying. It
must forever be recieving its entire sufficency from the Vine."
(3)Watchman Nee- THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE
"The Christian life is nothing short of the life of Christ. It is Christ's own life reproduced in us...The answer to pride is not humility-it is Christ, and Christ is the answer to every need. God will not give you humility or patience or love as separate gifts of
His grace; He has givien you Christ, and if you simply trust Him to
live out His Life in you, He will be humble, patient, loving, everything you need in your stead....THERE IS ONLY ONE CHRISTIAN
LIFE, AND THAT IS THE LIFE OF CHRIST. Paul said, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."Gal.2:20
C. THE DYNAMIC
Phil.2:13"It is God that worketh in you both to will and do of His good pleasure."
Gal.2:20""Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live in the flesh,
I live by faith of the Son of God..."
Jack Taylor says,"Christianity is Jesus Christ coming into an available body and acting like Himself."
Jesus liken the Christian life to a powerful flowing rivers that wells
up within us and flows out to parched and needy world. He told his
disciples. "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that
believeth on Me, as the Scripture has said, outof His belly shall flow
rivers of living water."(John 7:37-38) In 1998 I went to see my son,Chris who now lives in St.Louis which is located right on the mighty Mississippi River. I called the curator of the Samuel Clemens' home in the area to find out some things about this great American author. I wanted to know about his life on the river, because we were told by our grandparents and aunts and uncles that our greatgrandfather worked on a steamboat on the Mississippi River with Samuel Clemans(Mark Twain).The very name "Twain" comes from measuring the depth of the river. The curator gave me alot information. But one thing he said was at one time there were over 1200 steamboats working on the river in and out of the port of St. Louis. That powerful River was able to handle all that commerce in that era.
That spiritual river is none other than the life of Jesus Christ. He wants to be that added dynamic in our christian life. He wants to be that constant source of power to flow out of our lives and minister
to many in need. All the power you need is in Jesus and He wants and waits to flow through you. He desires to be the source of your life-spiritual life.You activate Him by faith. Faith is dependency upon another, and that another is Jesus. As you trust Him in and for anything, He will flow through you and into every situation that you submit to Him. submit it to Him and watch Him work and flow forth from your innermost being.
1.ILLUSTRATIONS OF THIS LIFE OF CHRIST IN US
(a)HOT WATER AND THE TEA BAG
Let's suppose that here is a cup of water, and over here is a tea bag.
The water is not the tea, and the tea is not the water. They are
separate items. Then something strange happens. The water is heated and the tea bag is placed in the water. It becomes indwelt by a new and dominant nature. The hot water is in the tea bag, and the tea is
now penetrating the water. One is in the water. For the water to exist now is for the tea to exist.
(b)WATER PUMP PUMPING THE MAN(MANNEQUIN)
The great preacher to South Africa and devotional writer, Andrew Murray, tells of riding a train from England to Scotland. He sees a
man fervently pumping a water well on a farm site. The man never lets
up. He keeps the same pace and never tires of the rate that he is pumping the water out of the water well. Murray is so infatuated by
this, that he gets off the train and goes back to th farm site to see
this. When he gets there he sees that it is not the man pumping the water out of the well, it is the well pumping the man. For the man is
not a man, but a mannequin(a model that is dressed like a man). And the well is attached to a motor and the hands are atttached to the pump. So in reality, it was the motorized water well pumping the man.
(c)SUPER BOWL QUARTERBACKS
Let's suppose that you were ask to be one of the starting quarterbacks
for the Atlanta Falcons or the Denver Broncos at the 1999 Superbowl game in Miami. You are excited about being in this Pro Football game, but at the same time you are alittle intimidated for you know that you can't throw a spiral fifty yards, or even forty yards...how about
ten yards. You know that you are strong, but you aren't too sure that
you can take a hit a quarterback by a 330 pound defensive lineman. So
you are alittle apprehensive to say the least. But suppose I heard that there was a serum that took years to develop that contained the
ingredients of the best quarterbacks of all time in the NFL. It had
the best of Johnny Unitas, Roger Stauback, Kenny Stabler, Troy Aikman,
Brett Farve, and many others. I am told that if I would give up on myself being a Pro NFL star and submit to the injection, by some
miracle of metabolism my throwing and quarterback ability would be
the consummmate result of all these great quarterbacks in me. Their
ability and strength would be placed in me. Certainly I would submit
it that would happen.
(d)Something a alot greater than this happens when we realize and reckon(count upon) the life of Jesus Christ being lived through our
being. He wants to live out HIS LIFE via your life.You are a
living container of the LORD JESUS CHRIST that needs to be poured out
on a parched and barren land.
TESTIMONIES
(a)CHARLES TRUMBULL
Excerpts from the phamplet,THE LIFE THAT WINS(CLC)
There were three great lacks in my Christian life:
1.There were great fluctuations in my spiritual life. Sometimes on
the mountaintop, other times living on the lowest level.
2.There was the matter of failure before besetting sins.
3.There was the lack of a dynamic, convincing power that would work
miraculous changes in other people's lives that came to me to be ministered to.
Trumbull cried unto the Lord to met his desparate need. God showed
him in a sermon that he heard a conference at Edinborough, Scotland
that "the resources of the christian life are just-Jesus Christ."
Trumbull saw that it was simply Jesus. That was all. But that was enough. Trumbull had a new conception of Jesus in his life. He says,
"Jesus Christ does not want to be our helper; He wants to be our life.
He does not want us to work for Him, He wants to work through us...
When our life is not only for Christ, but Christ, our life will be a
winning life, because he cannot fail." from excerpts from THE LIFE
THAT WINS by Charles Trumbull, former editor of The Sunday School Times.
(b)FRANK STOVALL,former Music Professor at Southwestern Seminary.
"It is alarming how far from God a person can get even though he is
in Christian work. Severe crises were permitted by the Lord to come
to my life...My faith was weakened...I was defeated at the very point where I desired victory-in being able to minister to others...I was
brought under deep conviction of my sins... I was praying for a friend
but finding answers for myself...I saw that the secret of the Christian life was in making every day His and allowing Him to live His Life through me. He doesn't want my efforts. He wants my submission. I'm resting the whole case on Jesus. He is my life."
-from THE KEY TO TRIUMPHANT LIVING By Jack Taylor
(c)MAJOR IAN THOMAS
"It was just His victory. It was just what He was. I found that the
simpler I could make it, the more blessing He gave...Only as I related situations to Him, did I find that He undertook... So I soon learned to count upon Him, because then things happened! That is the
secret; it is so simple! Just to relate everything to the Lord Jesus,
and take your hands off-to stand back and say, "I thank Thee, Lord, this is your situation!...Such a course is not inactivity, but Christ-activity." from THEY FOUND THE SECRET By V. Raymond Edman.
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INTRODUCTION
1.In the city of Cleveland, Ohio there stands a ten story building that was built by the "UNCLAIMED FUNDS" of relatives of people who
had died in the city. The funds were left to certain specified relatives, but for one reason or another they never claimed these funds that were theirs to do as they wished.
2.So goes life, and so goes people in the Christian life who never lay
claim to all that they have from Christ as His heir. He(JESUS) has
accomplished this great victory for us by His death, burial, and resurrection, and yet we never choose what is already ours in Christ.
3.Victory is NOT A GOAL for the Christian to achieve, but A GIFT for
the believer to recieve.
4.Appropriation by definition in Webster's means "to take as one's own; to claim." By faith we are to lay claim to what is already given
to us by Christ's victory on the cross and by His resurrection. We must make a conscious decision to lay claim to what is given to us by
virtue of the fact of our union with Christ. There is alot of "unclaimed freight" in heaven waiting for us to claim as our own. One
missionary said that he knew what the first question that God will ask
us when we get to Heaven. That would be, "Why didn't you let Me bless
you more?"
5.Personal victory in Christian living comes by appropriating faith.
Daily victory comes only by an activated faith in the facts of our identification with Christ.It is a faith that acts on the principles that brings victory. The principles of victorious Christian living lie dormant in most Christians. When we take by faith what is already ours, God undertakes to bring them into reality in our lives.
A. APPROPRIATING FAITH RECKONS
1. Appropriation is accomplished by a decision of faith. We cannot enter into all that is ours except by deciding to act on the word.
2. By acting on the fact, we must choose to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin. When we believe the fact of our identifiaction with
Christ in His Death to the old man and the sin and Satan master, we are on the road that leads to freedom. Those who believe, recieve.
Those who doubt, do without.
3.This decision of the will is our part. The French novelist, Victor
Hugo once said, "People do not lack strength, they lack will."
4.If you have settled down to defeat, then victory in Christ will elude you. If you are content with your status quo life that is more
in the valley of dispair, then victory will not most likely be yours.
Victory is a decision of the will that is activated by faith.
1. APPROPRIATING FAITH RECKONS ON THE REVEALED WORD OF GOD AS THE SOURCE OF OUR FAITH
(a.)GOD'S PROMISES ARE NOT ALTERED BY TIME.
God told Joshua after the death of Moses,"just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you."(Joshua 1:5-6) The promises of God did not stop with the great leader, Moses, or the previous generation. The
promises of God are just as alive today if we would but activate them
by faith.
(1.)Paul tells us in I Corintians 1:20 "in Jesus Christ all the promises
of God are yes and Amen." They are there for us to claim and activate
by faith.
(2.)Archeaologists have found seeds in pottery in ancient burial grounds. They planted these seeds that were sealed up for centuries.
They found that these ancient buried seeds produced a crop once they
were planted. The potential for life was still present.
(3.)God waits and wants to do so much more in our lives, it we would only activate the seed of His mighty promises.
(4.)QUOTE: Mel Tara in his book on the revival that came to Indonesia
and surrounding islands was asked why did not the mighty miracles that
they saw happen there happen here in America. His answer, "In Indonesia the believers are simple in their faith, if God says it in His Word, they believe it. In America you tend to analyse and depend
upon your intellect before you believe the things in the word.
from Mel Tara's account of revival in LIKE A MIGHTY WIND.
(b.)GOD' PROMISES ARE NOT ALTERED BY FAILURE.
(1.) Israel had failed to believe God in the wilderness and were put
in the penalty box for forty years. But God told that next generation
to believe and move forward by faith and possess the land. And they did.
(2.) You may have failed and failed again in the Christian life, but that should not hinder you from mustering enough faith in the fact
that you can walk in victory today. By sheer faith believe what God
says about you. Don't believe what you see, feel, or think-believe
what He says and you will walk where sin does not dominate.
2. APPROPRIATING FAITH RECKONS ON THE REVEALED WORD OF GOD AS THE
SPRING BOARD TO OUR FAITH.
(1.)That word "reckon" in the Greek is "logizomai." It is a technical word used in commerce and means "to count; to take into account; credit to one's account."
(2.)Each believer in Christ is to reckon(count on) what Christ has placed into our account through the riches of His grace. As we see a
"gold nugget" of God's promise-lay claim to it. It's yours by inheritance by virtue of bing in Christ.
(3.)QUOTE: WATCHMAN NEE-in his book, THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE
"If I really know I am already crucified, then I spontaneously reckon
myself dead. And when I trully reckon myself one with the Lord in death and resurrection, it follows that I will present myself to Him.
He is the source of my life-He is My life."
(4.)QUOTE: MAJOR IAN THOMAS-in the book,THEY FOUND THE SECRET(BY Dr.V.Raymond Edman)
God said to Major Thomas "You have been busy trying to do for Me all that only I can do through you...I am your victory in every area of your life, it you want it...Why don't you begin to reckon upon ME and
say "Thank-you."
(5.)ILLUSTRATION: Corrie TenBoon tells of an immigrant and his family
on a big steamer going across the ocean. The father had a large bag of peanuts for the family to munch on. But after several days on the
ocean, the peanuts got be a very dull meal. So the father asked the
deck hand serving meals how much a meal would cost. The deck hand said, "the meals were included in the price of your ticket. The meals
will cost you nothing."
(6.)Paul tells us the same in Romans 8:32"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall he not ALSO FREELY
GIVE US ALL THINGS."
B. APPROPRIATING FAITH RESTS
Hebrews 4:3"For we which have believed do enter into rest..."
1.Too many Christians have everything but inner rest.
2.QUOTE: Henry David Thoreau said, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
3.Most people are looking at their needs, and are in misery and turmoil. They are desperate and restless. The word "rest" is used
about ten times in Hebrews chapters three and four. God wants us to
enter into this inner peace no matter what is happening in our lives.
4.DEFINITION:Rest comes from the Greek word-katapausin. It means"to bring something to an end;stop;to settle down."
5.QUOTE: Warren Wiersbe, Bible Teacher and former pastor of Moody Church in Chicago said, "Rest is not a condition of the Body, it is a condition of the spirit-the inner man...It is not passive, but active."
6.In a busy market place crowded with people shouting and barking off
prices for their wares, Jesus came and offered inner peace and rest from the busy hustle of life.
Jesus said:
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
7.When you yoke up to Jesus, you are going to have an inner calm and
quietness about your Spirit. When you focus on Jesus as the source of
your Christian living, there will be a confidence that is divine. You
are not uptight in the most demanding circumstance, because Jesus is your life, and He is free to express Himself by you.
8.When you are walking in a Christ-consciousness, they you realize that you have that always sufficent supply of grace and power in Him,
who is in you. You begin to operate from sufficency and when you do that, there is inner rest. When you operate from need, there is panic
and fear and no rest. When Jesus is your life, and you are moment by moment depending on His Life in you, there is inner rest in your spirit.
9.QUOTE:Charles Trumbull in THEY FOUND THE SECRET said,
"I realized that "that Jesus Christ was actually and literally within me and even more tahn that: that He had constituted Himself my very life, taking me into union with Himself...It meant that I need never again ask Him to help me as though He were one and I another; but rather simply to do His work, His will, in me, and with me, and through me...Jesus Christ had constituted Himself my life-not as a figure of speech, remember, but as a literal, actual fact...Jesus Christ does not want to be our helper; He wants to be our life..."
10.QUOTE: Norman Grubb in THE SPONTANEOUS YOU testifed of this inner rest when we reckon on Jesus.
"Clearly I saw that we humans are not created to become something, but to contain Someone...This transferred my attention from worrying about myself as the vessel not being this, or being that. Leave myself alone. I am just the container. In place of this, I had it clearly that I was containing a totally exclusive Person who gives nothing, but is all..This means that the main function in life changes from activity to recetivity...Receptivity is occupied with receiving or recognizing what I contain-the only function of a vessel...The answer is the difference between activity from inadequacy which is strain, and activity from adequacy which is rest.If we are pulling the plow of our life's problems, relying on our own resources, that is strain, for we haven't fot what it takes ro meet them. If, in our pressures, we turn inwardly as containers to Him who is the all within, and boldly reckon on Him to handle things, then it is rest in the midst of the activities-the habit of recognition."
Dr. Ray Henry
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Dr. Samuel R. Henry
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128-B Weybridge Circle
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