Power Of Abounding

Key Scripture:  “He included everyone in His death so that everyone could also be included in His life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. …Now we look inside and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.  The old life is gone.  The new life burgeons! Look at it!”  2 Corinthians 5:17, The Message

Power Point:

    In the south when someone dies, the term used is usually “they passed away”.  There is a viewing service where people can come and look at the body and extend their condolences.  The body is then buried. It will only come back to life when Jesus comes again. Then, and only then, will that grave be opened and the dead shall rise.

When we become “new creations” in Jesus, when He fills us with His own life, there’s an “old” body that needs to die and be buried, isn’t there?

And that body needs to STAY buried. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but sometimes the “old man” tries to get out of the grave.  In the beginning, it’s not as hard because the presence of God’s Spirit is so life changing that you find it much easier to be “new”.  You actually forget the “old”. But as time passes by that “old man” begins to try to resurrect himself doesn’t he? You might find yourself falling back into “old” thought patterns or behaviors and then as the Holy Spirit gently reminds you that the “new” you doesn’t do those things anymore, you get to choose whether or not you agree.

     The most important thing we can do as “new” creations is to live like one.  I’ve seen people, and you have too, who claim to have the life of God in them, yet their mouths are filled with negativity and judgment. They are always depressed about their future; perhaps they are unkind, or selfish or stingy. In other words, their “old man” is continually being resurrected.

I love what Paul says in Philippians 4:12.  He is in a filthy jail, surrounded by human excrement and he says, "I know how to abound." I heard a description, recently,  of the jails at that time.  They were on two levels. The top level had holes in it so that "whatever" dropped from the top level dropped all around and on the people on the lower level; yet Paul was abounding. From the moment Paul met Jesus on that road to Damascus, things changed, didn't they? He changed. And the world changed because of it. Have you ever thought that Paul had the same opportunities that we do to grumble and complain?  He had the same opportunities to doubt God. I mean, just LOOK at his circumstances. He had the same opportunity to feel sorry for himself. But he didn’t. He knew how to abound.  Sometimes we concentrate on the first part of that sentence, “I know how to be abased.” But the magical thing is that he knew how to abound even though he was abased. Abound means that he didn’t just “get by”, he went over the top in joy. He overflowed the life of Christ in abundance. In Greek, the word  “abound” means “to be abundantly furnished with, to have in abundance, to be in  affluence; to MORE than exceed. He certainly did.

     Beloved, we have been abundantly furnished with the Spirit of Resurrection power.  We have more than enough of the power of God to exceed and succeed, and proceed. Will you pour fresh dirt on your “old man” today and begin to abound? It’s not easy to make sure he stays dead and buried, but it’s worth the battle isn’t it?  Just look at Paul.  Abounding grace.

Power Thought:

Old habits die hard but they quit kicking and screaming eventually if you replace them with new ones. Can you practice "abounding"?