- Get link
- X
- Other Apps
I'm reading a small pamphlet called "Found: God's Will." I plan to donate it to my church library and I'm reading it in advance of that, though I know that the author is solid and the information will be good.
So I am on this part discussing Peter's experience with Jesus in several settings. In this one, they are on the boat.
"Suddenly one of the men in the boat looked out and said, "Someone is walking on the water!" Sure enough, with robes flowing in the wind, here comes Jesus walking across the whitecaps.
Peter cried out, "Is that You, Lord?"
The Lord answered, "It is I"
Peter said, "Can I come?"
"You may wonder why Peter said that. Why didn't he wait in the boat until Jesus got there? But that wouldn't have been like Peter. He said to himself, 'Jesus is over there. I am over here. That is not good. I must go over there.' It never entered his mind that normally he was not able to walk on water. That was not even a problem.When he saw Jesus, he had such a desire to be with Him, that he went."
LOL! 'It never entered his mind that normally he was not able to walk on water"... Is your desire to be near Jesus that strong, that the impulse to be near to Him overrides all else?
How do we be near Jesus these days? First, we repent of our sins and become saved. If we are not saved, we are outside His body. God does not lead those who have not received Jesus as personal Savior. If you are not with Him, you are against Him. (Matthew 12:30). The first step is to be saved, that brings you so close to Jesus that he sends the Holy Spirit to be inside you! Talk about close!
Next, we have to die to self. It is our flesh and our will that separates us from Jesus. When we are not saved it is our sins that keep us from him, our flesh wanting to say and do things that oppose Him. When we are saved, the fleshly will and lusts do not go away. Unchecked and unrepented fleshly sins do cause us to be distant from Jesus, even if we are saved, (Proverbs 28:13) though we do not lose our salvation. But our lusts can be held in check by submission to the Holy Spirit and He helps us resist sin. We do not have the power or the will to do that but the Spirit does. So Jesus said,
"Luke 9:23-24 (NIV) Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."
Also, pray frequently. Colossians 4:2 says to "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." Devote is a strong word, the Greek means to persevere in, to remain steadfastly upon. Don't become lax in your prayer life, sending up a quickie prayer before bed and falling asleep in the middle of it. The prayers of the saints are heard by the Holy God in His courts!
"The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand." (Revelation 8:4)
Have you pondered lately what a privilege it is to pray to God and that He promises to hear them? We have a Holy and Loving God on His throne, with Jesus sitting by His side interceding for us. (Romans 8:34) Wow! Get excited over that!
So, to be close to Jesus we are born again, we die to self daily, and we pray devotedly. What else could we do to stay close to Jesus' side? Read His Word, of course. That is what Peter was doing- propelling himself toward the Word.
When we pray we speak to Him, but when we read His Word, He speaks to us. Everything we need to know about truth, Godly living, prayer, fasting, parenting, working, serving...it is all in there. Does the Word sit on your shelf, gathering dust?. Does it languish in the back seat of your car, fading? Or is it well-worn, spine cracked, pages wrinkled, children familiar? Personally I find the Word fascinating and beautiful. God sent the Word in the flesh to us, (John 1:14) and after that He sent the Word to us in the closed canon of the bible. (Revelation 22:21). He says things like this in it:
"The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes." (Psalm 19:8)
"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." (Colossians 3:12)
We are dearly loved, by the Holy God! Not just loved, but dearly loved! So dearly love Him back and read what He has to say to us, read about His nature and character as He reveals it. How can we serve a Jesus we don't know? How can we love Him back if we do not know Whom we are loving?
There are many things we do to stay close to the Lord, but I'll end with this one. Stay faithful through trials, dear ones. Stay faithful. Trials come, they do to all born again believers. Peter said to rejoice when they come. Why rejoice?
"These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." (1 Peter 1:7)
The glory of Jesus Christ! And that is what everything we do is all about: the closer we are to Him the more glory we can reflect back on Him! It is all about He who is coming soon to gather His children to His bosom and take us home. (Isaiah 40:11). His glory is so pure, so bright that no one can see it and live. (Exodus 33:20). But when he collects us, we will be transformed, (1 Corinthians 15:51). We will see it! What a sight that will be! (1 John 3:2)
Tweet
So I am on this part discussing Peter's experience with Jesus in several settings. In this one, they are on the boat.
"Suddenly one of the men in the boat looked out and said, "Someone is walking on the water!" Sure enough, with robes flowing in the wind, here comes Jesus walking across the whitecaps.
Peter cried out, "Is that You, Lord?"
The Lord answered, "It is I"
Peter said, "Can I come?"
"You may wonder why Peter said that. Why didn't he wait in the boat until Jesus got there? But that wouldn't have been like Peter. He said to himself, 'Jesus is over there. I am over here. That is not good. I must go over there.' It never entered his mind that normally he was not able to walk on water. That was not even a problem.When he saw Jesus, he had such a desire to be with Him, that he went."
LOL! 'It never entered his mind that normally he was not able to walk on water"... Is your desire to be near Jesus that strong, that the impulse to be near to Him overrides all else?
How do we be near Jesus these days? First, we repent of our sins and become saved. If we are not saved, we are outside His body. God does not lead those who have not received Jesus as personal Savior. If you are not with Him, you are against Him. (Matthew 12:30). The first step is to be saved, that brings you so close to Jesus that he sends the Holy Spirit to be inside you! Talk about close!
Next, we have to die to self. It is our flesh and our will that separates us from Jesus. When we are not saved it is our sins that keep us from him, our flesh wanting to say and do things that oppose Him. When we are saved, the fleshly will and lusts do not go away. Unchecked and unrepented fleshly sins do cause us to be distant from Jesus, even if we are saved, (Proverbs 28:13) though we do not lose our salvation. But our lusts can be held in check by submission to the Holy Spirit and He helps us resist sin. We do not have the power or the will to do that but the Spirit does. So Jesus said,
"Luke 9:23-24 (NIV) Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."
Also, pray frequently. Colossians 4:2 says to "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." Devote is a strong word, the Greek means to persevere in, to remain steadfastly upon. Don't become lax in your prayer life, sending up a quickie prayer before bed and falling asleep in the middle of it. The prayers of the saints are heard by the Holy God in His courts!
"The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand." (Revelation 8:4)
Have you pondered lately what a privilege it is to pray to God and that He promises to hear them? We have a Holy and Loving God on His throne, with Jesus sitting by His side interceding for us. (Romans 8:34) Wow! Get excited over that!
So, to be close to Jesus we are born again, we die to self daily, and we pray devotedly. What else could we do to stay close to Jesus' side? Read His Word, of course. That is what Peter was doing- propelling himself toward the Word.
When we pray we speak to Him, but when we read His Word, He speaks to us. Everything we need to know about truth, Godly living, prayer, fasting, parenting, working, serving...it is all in there. Does the Word sit on your shelf, gathering dust?. Does it languish in the back seat of your car, fading? Or is it well-worn, spine cracked, pages wrinkled, children familiar? Personally I find the Word fascinating and beautiful. God sent the Word in the flesh to us, (John 1:14) and after that He sent the Word to us in the closed canon of the bible. (Revelation 22:21). He says things like this in it:
"The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes." (Psalm 19:8)
"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." (Colossians 3:12)
We are dearly loved, by the Holy God! Not just loved, but dearly loved! So dearly love Him back and read what He has to say to us, read about His nature and character as He reveals it. How can we serve a Jesus we don't know? How can we love Him back if we do not know Whom we are loving?
There are many things we do to stay close to the Lord, but I'll end with this one. Stay faithful through trials, dear ones. Stay faithful. Trials come, they do to all born again believers. Peter said to rejoice when they come. Why rejoice?
"These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." (1 Peter 1:7)
The glory of Jesus Christ! And that is what everything we do is all about: the closer we are to Him the more glory we can reflect back on Him! It is all about He who is coming soon to gather His children to His bosom and take us home. (Isaiah 40:11). His glory is so pure, so bright that no one can see it and live. (Exodus 33:20). But when he collects us, we will be transformed, (1 Corinthians 15:51). We will see it! What a sight that will be! (1 John 3:2)
I love your site Grace (and it is a blessing to me) and this was a great post. I am a "child" in learning the word, and I had a question. How does one die to self? Forgive me if I missed it in reading your post. Thank you and God bless
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI get a zillion blessings when someone asks such a great question as you did! And I'm glad you did because I was remiss in explaining what dying to self means! I apologize.
Let me offer you this link which explains it in detail:"What does the Bible mean by "dying to self"?"
http://www.gotquestions.org/dying-to-self.html
For me, dying to self daily means seeking Jesus' ways every day, and not mine. Though He gained the victory over sin and death at the cross and resurrection, and therefore offers that same victory to born again believers, we still have our old sin nature. The Spirit in us helps us resist it. So dying to self means resisting our sin nature through reliance on the strength of the Holy Spirit and growth in the good fruits of the Spirit by submission to the Spirit. That is why Jesus gained the victory, because He hadn't sinned and therefore He and the Spirit are qualified to stand apart from sin and win over it. They extend that victory to us.
It means I am cautious when choosing television, books, or movies to ingest. I want the things entering me to be pure. It means I don't swear any more. It means I don't drink alcohol (the bible doesn't forbid drinks but it does forbid drunkenness, so I err on the side of safety). It means in situations where before I was saved I'd get angry, I now stop and think about what the bible says about anger. I strive to love people instead. All of the above, for me, are things that the Holy Spirit is growing in me as a new creation. My old self is dying, my new self in Christ is growing. That happens when we pick up the cross and we follow Him in submission to the Spirit. But I have to do it every day because in no time the sinful self will want to rear up and take over again!
Dying to self happens instantly when we are born again, and then it begins a process of happening all our long lives, also. It is the process of "regeneration", as dying to self is a daily process which will not be complete until we are either bodily transformed at the rapture or resurrected from the dead at the rapture: glorified forever, our sinful man inside us dead and no longer part of us. I'm really looking forward to the day when we are all with Jesus with no sin nature, worshiping Jesus perfectly loving each other perfectly!
Please feel free to visit the link, it uses the bible verses to explain what it means in a readable and understandable way. Thank you for asking!
I recently started walking with Christ. A few months ago, The Holy Spirit started to teach me to "die to self" and to become "A living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1). And I'll be honest, it has been the hardest, surrendering everything and walking in complete obedience. I'm realizing i'm selfish and I spend alot of time just giving into my flesh instead of walking in The Spirit.
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought it was impossible but then I'd remember Philippians 4:13 and I realized that I just did not know many people that lived that way.
Your post above was very helpful to me and thanks for this post. God bless.
Anonymous, congratulations! I'm so thrilled for you. Yes, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. It is a walk, so every day we make progress. The key is, don't stop walking. Even if it is a less rapid pace today than yesterday, it is still progress. Just keep going. Every step we take in faith glorifies Jesus!
ReplyDeleteThank you! *hugs*
ReplyDeleteI was actually the person that commented awhile back that I was doubting my salvation and it was a brief but tough time. Let me testify that God confirmed to me shortly after that I was His in a BIG way. It was almost like He said "Don't EVEN go there, you are mine!" Part of the reason for all my doubt was because it was so hard for me to fully surrender and walk in surrender. I just didn't want to surrender and I'd read in places that not being obedient means you are not a christian. I feel awful just writing all that. I just thank My God that He is unbelievably merciful, forgiving and patient.
Anyway, thanks soooo much for all the encouragement. I'm just now realizing that even when I stumble, The Lord is still holding me and molding me till I see Him face to face.
Hi Grace,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for answering my question (re:dying to self). It was such a great, well thought out answer; now I understand. I bookmarked the link you provided. A side note: I google end time and rapture information and there are so many sites out there, but I always think it is interesting that I chose your site. I think it was the Spirit leading me to do so, because yours is one that is honest and right in tune with The Word. I have checked, trust me and that cannot be said about other sites. You are doing a wonderful, thing here. Don't stop.
God bless
Marrell
Thank you Marrell, an ocean of thanks. I need to work hard not to drift from the truth of the word nor handle it familiarly. Thank you for the check-up because it means so much to be on the straight and narrow. Thank you for the encouragement also because many do not want solid doctrine, online or in life, and standing up for Jesus sometimes gets contentious. It's nice to have a kind word.
ReplyDelete