Power Of The Spirit Filled Life

Key Scripture:  "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him and we should no longer be slaves to sin." Romans 6:5,6

Power Point:

The concept of the old man versus the new man causes many of us to struggle.  As a new creation, we are something uniquely new to the world.  We get to be like Jesus. He was the first man to become filled with God's Spirit, anointed with His Spirit, and be able to live His life in total peace and partnership with God.  He lived in His purpose.

Jesus was living in the Kingdom of Darkness yet He brought God's light to the world He lived in.

He manifested the perfect example of a man, filled and led, and anointed with the Spirit of God.

He did not divide the two into different compartments.  He did not say, "This is what the Carpenter's Son can do."  and "This is what the Son of God can do."  He was both entities at all times.  He was sinless, and yet He had the perfect freedom to choose one without the other. There's no more striking example of that than in the Garden of Gethsemane. The pressure to give into His dread of what lay ahead for Him eventually had  to yield to His purpose. His desire to please His Father and set us free ultimately changed the world.

In Christ.

Those words sometimes trip off our tongues without any real depth of understanding, don't they? In the garden, Christ KNEW Who He was and WHAT He was called to do.  He had a love for His Father that none of us can truly comprehend.  His fleshly man was constrained by that love. He KNEW His Father's heart.  I believe He reminded Himself in those moments, that His Father was the kindest, gentlest, most joyful, happy and loving Person ever. He KNEW that God's power would keep Him, even when He could not keep Himself.  He KNEW that what lay ahead was only a moment in time compared to an eternity of freedom for us.  He KNEW that there was JOY on the other side of the cross.  
Have you ever thought that Jesus KNEW stripe by stripe exactly what was going to happen in the next few hours and He could have said, "No!"? But He didn't.  He KNEW that if He endured the next few hours He would march into hell and take back the keys of authority.  He KNEW that the Spirit of God that was in Him was GREATER than he that was in the world.  He KNEW that if He persisted, you and I would always have a choice to live in the Kingdom of Darkness or the Kingdom of Light.

He KNEW that some of us would choose to stay in darkness even though Light was now an option.

And most of all, He KNEW how valuable, precious, and profound it would be for us to live in relationship with His Father.  He KNEW that the cross meant that we would become part of God's family. And so He yielded His fleshly fear to the encouraging presence and power of the Holy Spirit within Him.

We have the same privilege. IF Jesus is indeed alive in your heart, the Holy Spirit is there as well.  That simply means that you have the same freedom to choose to  ask for His help, yield to His directions, and KNOW Him and KNOW Your heavenly Father.

Jesus KNEW all that.  If you KNOW Him, you'll know that too.

Power Thought:

His power towards us is according to His power in us.  Did you KNOW that?

Copyright ©2014, Suzanne Roberts, Unpublished Work.