Let’s keep breathing by God’s grace – breathing out prayer by faith…
“Before wind and fire, there was something quieter. Breath.” – Jen Weaver
Wind and fire can both frighten and fascinate us. They are outside of us. But breath is inside – comforting, strengthening, pacing us. Breath gives us hearts that keep beating, eyes that keep seeing, and voices that keep praying.
The Breath of God comes and fills our very being and we respond with an “Amen. Lord God, help us to keep breathing in joy and peace, in newness of life and hope, by your grace!”
God has met me here where I am and this morning gives me the breath that inspires and gives hope. He has provided “green pastures and still waters” in these four years when often the dawning of a new day seemed nearly impossible…
Julia died – May 13, 2022
Her good friends, Arline and Bev, followed soon after.
The drumbeat of grief continued in the death of other good and close friends and family…Vicki, Maurine, Janette, Bob, Barbara, Jack…
Cancer set in and I grew old fast.
Weakness, sleeplessness, mental fog, weariness, and depression have been frequent companions.
And so, very often I have returned to the Cross of Christ for comfort from the Man of Sorrows and our merciful, Heavenly Father. There was power there, power to turn from sinful reactions to this world of trouble. But God has now given me something more to give strength to breathing by faith.
Something dramatic happened in my heart and perspective during our Lenten and Easter season this year — something of the Spirit of God that I’m still seeking to understand and put in words.
Since April 16, by his grace I have been able to point my heart and my steps more oftentoward the Empty Tomb — the life beyond the grave!
Having received the mercy of God in Christ and knowing HE is finished with my sin, in this day of weakness I now want to learn more fully the freedom and joy of living in the power of the Resurrection – the power that changed history from law to grace.[1] The love of Christ shown on the cross is the foundation of my life but now I’m realizing that it’s the empty tomb and Christ’s Ascension to Glory that are the building materials for a new life of my soul in these days.
Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” (Luke 24:46-49 NKJV)
“Tarry… until endued with power from on high”
What strikes my heart is that if I had to wait 76 years, or until the last breath I drew on this sin-cursed planet, to receive and recognize and live in the power of the Spirit of God would be an absolutely amazing gift – worthy of however long it took! No wonder the disciples were willing to wait together in prayer for so many days in that upper room…
And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; [5] for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-8 NKJV)
Fully Alive In Christ — Seated in Glory!
Raised in power in the flesh as well as in glory – Jesus was both fully alive by the Spirit in the weakness of human flesh and also fully alive in Glory – raised out of weakness in resurrection power.
We want to live like Christ– to wash the feet of others, to be calm before opposition, to stand at the grave and expect New Life to emerge. But how can we do that except in the power of the Holy Spirit given – that is, the power of resurrection, of rising to New Life In Christ?
Being Transformed to be like Christ, the Christian is fully alive — both now and in the glorious certainty of being fully alive in glory forever.
Our transformation into Christ-likeness should not be focused simply on his relationship with people when he walked this earth before the Cross, but must embrace and step into the life of Christ-followers AFTER Christ arose from the grave and ascended into Glory.
We can attempt what Jesus does by law (what’s expected of me) or by the Spirit (what’s expected of God). If we choose to live by what others tell us to do, rather than by faith in the presence of His Almighty Spirit, we do so in the power of the old man of flesh, and it will fail. Living by law leads us to focus on death, not life, because it is a return to life as it was lived before the cross and the resurrection – a turning away from the power to live in light of Christ’s gift of the Spirit after he arose.
There was no resurrection for Christ without the Cross, but His death does not provide the power to live that we witnessed in His resurrection. His death provides atonement for sin and opens the door to reconciliation with God. But it’s His resurrection provides the Power of the Holy Spirit to all those who believe in Him.
Christ’s life example and his teaching before his death on the Cross are critical for all of us under slavery to sin, but were not designed simply to remove the shackles of that sin, but to empower life.
Christ’s life and teaching were designed for a born again life by the power of the Spirit after His resurrection.
In fact, we might say that everything Jesus taught before he died cannot be lived out in this life except by the power of the Holy Spirit giving us new life. The historical realities of the Church for over 2,000 years demonstrates how important it is to recognize that his teaching was not for just back then, but for now so many years later.
“Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. If you love me, keep my commands.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.“
So, Jesus rose from the dead, gave the gift of the Spirit, and suddenly NOW all his teaching, relating to others, and the disposition of his human soul are in reach for me in:
Turning from reliance on self, yielding to God’s word, seeking his presence, choosing to follow his voice and his heart alone…
Humility, commitment, waiting, acting in faith…
Repentance, rest, quietness, trust…
Lord God,
I want to live a life consumed by victory and overcoming faith, NOT consumed with the need to repent and die to self.
Repentance or death to self is necessary – the reality of where I started in my walk with you. But repentance is only one word out of four that you gave us in Isaiah 30:15. The other three are rest, quietness, and trust. I want to live more and more in those three realities and rise above a life consumed with dying, dying to self, to flesh and to the world.
Oh God, I do want to die to those things but more and more, Lord, I hunger and thirst after life in you and freedom from those things. Perhaps you are getting me ready for Glory but oh God, help me to walk in newness of life now as much as possible.
By your grace Lord I will rise up out of this present darkness that keeps condemning my walk and causing me to fear the loss of your mercy – mercy you’ve already granted me. I love you Lord and I want to believe that your gift is life out of death.
I’m trading my sorrows for Christ’s joy, my pessimism for Christ’s optimism, my disappointment for Christ’s confidence…
Today, “it is finished.” (John 19:30)
Amen
[1]Philippians 3:7-11 ESV, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
“Christ in you is your greatest reality. The Father connecting with Christ in you is the key focus of all your growth and experience in the fullness of God. Direct learning from God was the way Jesus learned how to walk with God as a man. Now with Christ in us we have the same guaranteed process to follow. This means that like Jesus we are experiencing the same relationship with the Father that he enjoyed and loved. This is what it means to be Christlike.” – Graham Cooke (Brilliant Perspectives)
breathingbygraceblog 